carrying charge

1. A cost incurred for the physical storage or ownership of an asset that is unproductive or not lucrative. The strike by pilots and flight attendants devastated the airline's profits, as they had to refund passengers' ticket prices as well as pay a higher carrying charge for their grounded airplanes. The carrying charge for the new apartment complex, which failed to attract potential homeowners, eventually bankrupted the development company. If you don't fix this place up quick and get it on the market, you'll start drowning in carrying charges.

2. An additional charge, usually interest, applied to an account that is paid in installments. The phone company advertised having the lowest rate, but after the carrying charge was applied, my monthly bill was actually higher than ever before! Yikes, the carrying charge for that credit card is just brutal. Yeah, you can pay in installments, but when you factor in the carrying charge, you'll end up paying way more that the one-time fee.

carrying charge

1. Interest charged on the balance owed when paying on an installment plan, as in What is the carrying charge for this credit card? The term denotes the amount charged for carrying the remaining debt. [Late 1800s]

2. The cost incurred when an asset is unproductive, as when aircraft are grounded during a strike, real estate cannot be developed owing to zoning laws, or similar circumstances. For example, The carrying charge for owning this building may send us into bankruptcy.

See also: carry, charge

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in periodicals archive

Summing up our discussion, supply chain management professionals must develop better estimates of the components of the total cost of holding inventory--the noncapital carrying costs and the capital carrying charge. Better estimates of these components (which are almost always higher than the current estimates used) provide more accurate insights into the total cost of holding inventory.

The real cost of holding inventory. (Decisions)

AB: Assembly Bill ACR: Assembly Concurrent Resolution CPUC: California Public Utilities Commission CT: Combustion turbine EPD: Equal percentage of difference EPMC: Equal percentage of marginal cost ERI: Energy reliability index LRMC: Long-run marginal costs NCO: New customer method PG&E: Pacific Gas and Electric Company PW: Present worth QF: Qualifying Facility RECC: Real economic carrying charge SAPC: System average percentage change SCE: Southern California Edison Company SDG&E: San Diego Gas & Electric Company SRMC: Short-run marginal costs T&D: Transmission and distribution VOS: Value of service

Marginal cost pricing for utilities: a digest of the California experience

The total costs of inventory are the sum of the carrying charges and the ordering costs.

Inventory analysis techniques for generation, transmission and distribution cooperatives of the rural electric system

263(g)(2) defines "interest and carrying charges" to mean the excess of (1) the interest related to debt that is "incurred or continued to purchase or carry the personal property" and all other amounts paid or incurred to carry the personal property over (2) certain receipts with respect to the personal property.

Current developments for straddle transactions

Election to capitalize carrying charges. Taxpayers can elect to capitalize the carrying costs of unimproved and nonproductive real property, real property under development or construction and personal property before its installation or use (Regs.

Don't neglect to elect

The weaker debt protection is due to higher carrying charges and the utility's decision not to lift rates to a degree that would cover annual debt payments until fiscal 2012, the agency noted.

-S&P cuts Madera's series 2006 bonds to A

In addition, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities fined Unitil subsidiary Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light some $4.6 million plus carrying charges, for engaging in "an unauthorized natural gas price hedging program" that kept its customers from taking advantage of the drop in natural gas prices.

Ice storm pelts Unitil's '09 earnings

Even as the World Bank applauds them for joining the ranks of the world's most "business-friendly" economies, their post-Soviet policy decisions may doom them to serve as an object lesson for the late economist Herbert Stein's maxim that "a trend that can't go on forever, won't." Their economic problem is how to balance their trade deficit without running even more deeply into debt and thereby building carrying charges into their balance of payments.

Fading Baltic miracle: a dangerous dependence on the property bubble

GEM has agreed to time frames, at the end of which the customer agrees to take product, carrying charges which are embedded in the price when a particular quantity of finished goods is agreed upon and no time sunset is indicated.

OEM squeeze play: tougher terms for EMS players: how can EMS companies remain flexible in today's economy?

* collect repayment only if the business is profitable, excluding carrying charges;

Reinsurers as Partners

you can save is in not producing more than your carrying charges can handle.

Tyson Joins Online Food Service Network

Consequently, the exposed b-c plane has O carrying charges of -4/3 or -2/3 (type A and type B oxygens).

The crystallo-chemistry of oxide-humus complexes

(Having rental income taxed on a net basis after deductions for costs or operations, maintenance, and carrying charges usually results in a lower overall tax for the foreign owner.) On the other hand, U.S.

Property managers with foreign investor clients (what you should know)