Beware of Tricks of the Trade with your Credit Card Company
I was looking at one of my credit card bills and saw a $39 late fee on the account. Did not understand how I was late. Well the statement closed around July 4th and it did not go out on that date, then with the weekends etc, I did not receive the bill until July 10th and mailed the payment in 3 days so it could be received on time. Needless to say turning that bill around in 3 days still was not fast enough. I got wacked with a late fee.
I told them what the heck is going on, they said sir you were late a couple times this year already. I then asked how is it all my other bills are paid on time and this card is always late...they then said the card had a very short payment cycle, meaning they were almost setting me up for late fees every month...
So just beware if you are not getting an appropriate time frame to pay a particular credit card bill. Particularly if you have late payments on one card only, they may be only giving you essentially a week to pay it, because they recommend allowing 7 to 10 business days for mailing time. Not sure where you live, but the mail should get to either coast in 2 to 4 business days...
The credit card company then gave me another week to send the payment. I then asked, are you giving me another week by closing my statement a week later, they said no. They were shorting me a week on the payment cycle on this particular card.
Make sure you look at your payment dates on your credit cards...
Jeff Pape
