Question

Karolyn bought a water softener from a rental center for $1,850. She makes 16 monthly payments of $162.75 with her credit card. The rental center charges a $2.25 fee for every late payment made with a credit card. What is the total cost of the water softener if each payment is late?

Answer 1

We know from our problem that she makes 16 monthly late payments. Since the value of the monthly payment is $162.75 and the late payment fee is $2.25, we are going to add the monthly payment and the late payment fee to obtain her actual payment:
$162.75+$2.25=$165

Now that we know that she pays $165 for each monthly late payment, we are going to multiply that value by the number of payments to get the total cost of the water softener:
$165*16=$2640

We can conclude that if each payment is late, the total cost of the water softener is $2640.