late payment information...

[jgoff78]

im trying to find out what allows a credit company of any type to determine late payments. most of my bills are mailed out the date they are due, and ive never had a problem. for example my mazda bill is due the 19th of every month, i mail it on the 19th yet ive never been charged late fees... why? its not just this one i have about 10 bills that recure monthly and i do the same with them. my understanding is that if its post marked before the due date your ok. but i had someone telling me otherwise, is there actually a law protecting you or is it policy of most places? my grandpa had a bill to pay home depot this month on a credit card, he was on vacation and got back two days before it was "due" he went to the store to make a payment instead of mailing and asked em "if you recieve it after the due date is it late" they told him yes, thats how this started. but he also didnt ask anything about if it was mailed today and got there a day after... so were trying to get to the bottom of this.
thanks all and if you have any cited references that would be great

[NEG297F]

It varies form lender to lender. You have to check your credit card agreement. For instance my house payment is due on the 14th, but it is not overdue until the 24th. Both of my credit cards have to have the payment recieved by them before or onthe due date, if not it is overdue and a late fee is charged. Just mail in the payment the day after you recieve it and you will never be late

[Dieselmaster]

I have found that most lenders now days say the payment has to be to them by a specific date and not just mailed by that date anymore.

It seems like it has been a quiet transistion to this new requirement so they can get as many people as possible with the late payment fee.

Call me a conspiracy theorist but I believe they have changed it to increase the number of late fees they can charge. As it sits now you have to send it very early to make certain it will arrive in time. Otherwise you will be assesed a late fee and you have no way of proving that it arrived to them in a timely manner.

It was much easier in the past when you could prove that it was mailed to them in by a certain date. Now you are at their mercy of when they got it.

[KINGTUT]

Though it is not for all folks the best way to avoid a late charge and assure a timely payment is to make the payment online directly from your checking account. Been doing it for years, no late payments, no problems.

[hapaschold]

never really had any issues with major creditors, ford, lincoln, mazda, or capital one...

if a payment was late, a phone call to them with explanation would result in a credit of the late charge.

but , the home depot deal , watch out. had a card, used for a 12 month interest free purchase, and other regular purchases. all of a sudden, no statements came, then harrasing phone calls regarding late payments from some off shore customer service rep.. said how can i mail in payments with no statement ? they read address and it had been changed ?? anyway, after about an hour on the phone, they issued credit for all the late charges, applied a extra 50 bucks credit......and apologized.

those zero for 12 months are confusing.

[amb2958]

I wouldn't count on the lenders good will or grace periods. You're much safer to mail them out at least 5 days before due and not have to worry about it getting there and being processed by their system, otherwise it's a major hassle to get it corrected later and could also leave a mark on your credit score.

[kc2kgt]

Yeah, Mortgages car loans etc normally don't charge a late fee if it arrives in their "grace period".

Credit cards on the other hand are a different story. I had two cards with Citibank about a year ago. I was traveling and forgot the date, ended up paying the bill online like always just 4-5 days late. Well what do you know, both credit cards were at 10-12% interest on them and the next month they were at 32.99% and the minimum payment multiplied 10 times the original amount.

I will never give CitiBank any of my business again.

[jimmy]

It is all dependent on the contract you agree to. You probably don't read the fine print on all those pages but it states the time frames of what is deemed late and how they compute the late fee or what the fixed late fee is.
The credit agreement (contract) gives them the right to charge you this. Some states limit the fees but to my knowledge they have no say in the time periods of what is on time or late.

[Kaliburz]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: kc2kgt</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Yeah, Mortgages car loans etc normally don't charge a late fee if it arrives in their "grace period".

Credit cards on the other hand are a different story. I had two cards with Citibank about a year ago. I was traveling and forgot the date, ended up paying the bill online like always just 4-5 days late. Well what do you know, both credit cards were at 10-12% interest on them and the next month they were at 32.99% and the minimum payment multiplied 10 times the original amount.

I will never give CitiBank any of my business again. </div></div>

WOW. Same issue w/ CitiBank. Missed two payments in a row (same card), misplaced the statements and it was harvest season. I knew it was due, but when I looked online, OPPPS. I pay online, but I still make them mail me a hard copy of the statement.

The two Citi cards I have, I mainly use for online stuff (low limit).... but they 'swapped' them from Mastercard to AMEX (go figure).

Any how, the interest didn't go as high as yours, but it wasn't low as yours to begin with (mid teens).

I contacted them via email, but it was my fault. I told them it was unintentional. I didn't request the late fees to be cleared though....

Some credit card places are sharks. All they do is want to find a reason to jack things up.

[checkthisout]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: kc2kgt</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Yeah, Mortgages car loans etc normally don't charge a late fee if it arrives in their "grace period".

Credit cards on the other hand are a different story. I had two cards with Citibank about a year ago. I was traveling and forgot the date, ended up paying the bill online like always just 4-5 days late. Well what do you know, both credit cards were at 10-12% interest on them and the next month they were at 32.99% and the minimum payment multiplied 10 times the original amount.

I will never give CitiBank any of my business again. </div></div>


LOL!!


I had the same thing happen with a B of A Credit Card.

I missed the payment day by a few days because I was in the process of moving and changing jobs and then missed by literally a day again.

Two late payments in 6 months = default interest rate of something like 29% back then.

Not cool.

These were not deliquent and they were not 30 days, just late by a few days.

I called them and they stated I had to continue paying the the default rate in addition to the 40 dollar "late charge" for 6 months then my card would return to the "normal" rate.

I laughed, paid the balance off over the phone and closed the credit account and checking/savings account that same day.



As others have stated though, the Credit decides when your payment is due. If you look at your credit agreement it will say payments must be recived on or before the date listed on the most current statement each month etc etc....

Their is no regulatory "standard" they must follow.

[whitjo]

They make their own rules in order to keep people in debt forever!
I almost missed one awhile back on my biz card, I called(early morning) on the due date to pay by phone. They said "it may not post today and you might get charged a late fee"
I said " it better By G get posted or I will close this account immediately"! they posted it that day.
These A hole CC companies will do whatever you let them do.
I call mine about once a month to ask them to reduce the rate or close the account. sometimes they do, sometimes it gets closed right then!

[checkthisout]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: whitjo</div><div class="ubbcode-body">They make their own rules in order to keep people in debt forever!
I almost missed one awhile back on my biz card, I called(early morning) on the due date to pay by phone. They said "it may not post today and you might get charged a late fee"
I said " it better By G get posted or I will close this account immediately"! they posted it that day.
These A hole CC companies will do whatever you let them do.
I call mine about once a month to ask them to reduce the rate or close the account. sometimes they do, sometimes it gets closed right then!
</div></div>


They have pushed around a lot of customers because regular and even slightly above regular joes are a necessary evil compared to Hedge Funds and such.

They viewed everyday joes as burdens tying up cash that they could be using for higher returns elsewhere.

Well now that the housing bubble has popped and hedge funds are losing money left and right the day of reckoning for the banks has come.

Ok

-RANT OFF-

[Mr_Roboto]

Due date is a due date. It's not a "mail by" date. It's the date they need the money into THEIR account.

The companies that do it different will say "must be postmarked by XX/XX/XXXX" on the bill.

[Leader]

How about if your Boss puts your check in the mail a couple days after your next payday? Would that be alright with you? Or how about you loan me $1000 and I'll pay it back when I feel like it not when we agreed I would when I borrowed it?
Each month I'll only be a few days after the due date, not late just after when we agreed on by a few days.

[checkthisout]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Leader</div><div class="ubbcode-body">How about if your Boss puts your check in the mail a couple days after your next payday? Would that be alright with you? Or how about you loan me $1000 and I'll pay it back when I feel like it not when we agreed I would when I borrowed it?
Each month I'll only be a few days after the due date, not late just after when we agreed on by a few days. </div></div>

If I was borrowing the money from the government at 2% interest, marking it up to 8% and pocketing the 6% difference then yeah I would be ok with you being a few days late.

In fact I would encourage that you be late if I could charge you a minimum of 40 bucks for a late fee or 5% if the amount you owed was over $250.oo and ohhh.....if you were late twice in six months I would be really happy because then I could that money that I borrowed at 2% interest and mark it up even more from 8% to 30% thus increasing my profits 4-fold.

In fact it might be in my best interest to ensure that you have as hard a time of making that payment as possible. I can do this by issuing multiple and ever increasing lines of credit regardless of your income or intelligence about money that you have displayed in the past. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img]