To finance my roof, I made two short-term loans, both of which I've been ready to pay off even before the first statements were to arrive in the mail.

The Wells Fargo Financial information has been most elusive. You can pay the loan online, but you cannot see the Terms and Conditions, nor can you download the statement plus APR online. The phone number accesses the most arcane telephone tree known to man. After connecting with a human (finally!), I was told he could not get that information for me.

Today I was persistent. I called every phone number listed for Wells Fargo until I finally got to a Customer Service Representative, who was both helpful and knowledgeable. She told me the statement was mailed the 12th (which means I should be getting it any day now) and...

here's the shocker...the APR is 27.99%. I was speechless (and if you know me, you know that's a rare situation). I've never heard of an interest rate that high. No wonder they wanted to keep it under wraps.

So much for the federal law requiring disclosure of Terms and Conditions for banks and other institutions issuing credit. These folks (remember the name Wells Fargo) couldn't care less what the law requires. I advise you never to have dealings with them.

And isn't 27.99% (I made the Customer Rep repeat it twice, just in case I hadn't heard correctly)--isn't that usury? Isn't it illegal to charge that high an APR? (Can you say "loan shark"?)

Now that I've stopped hyperventilating, I'll go online and pay off the entire thing. But the experience has made me very wary of financing any other home improvement project, let me tell you.

Smelling salts, please.