There should not be any late charge for unintentional lates. Neither should there be any for lates that are beyond my control.
Creditors know the postal service can't be relied upon. Setting up late fees to take advantage of the situation is nothing short of scandalous. Legal robbery is the lowest of the low. At least the ordinary thief isn't hiding behind the law or getting it to do his dirty work for him.
Most credit card companies do this intentionally - the statement is often mailed 10-14 days before the due date - with full knowledge that it will take 3-5 days to reach you and even if you mail a payment back immediately 3-5 days return mail, "5 BUSINESS DAYS" to post the payment - resulting in a late charge. Credit card companies make the BULK of their profit from late/overlimit charges and readily admit this when taken to task about it. As for stapling your check to the payment, this actually delays your payment from posting quickly. Most use automated equipment that is only wide enough for the check to run through and it is read and posted automatically - any item that is stapled is placed in a bin and sorted/posted by hand later. There is a very good testimony about this on Kristy's website from a former credit card company employee. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/cards/customerservicerepdiary.shtml
This is a violation of the credit law that requires them to give us the bill at least 14 days before it's due:
I don't staple the checks to the payment slips. I got tired of sending more than one check and having only 1 of them credited. I would ask why the other check didn't get credited and their reply was always we didn't get it. Now when I send more than 1 check I staple all the checks together. This way they will either get all the checks or none of them. Now when they credit only 1 check but not the other ones I know they are lying to me if they say that they didn't get them. As for delays in posting payments - that has no bearing on when the bill was legally paid.
Sorry if I misunderstood lbrown. I do agree totally that that has no bearing on when the bill was legally paid. Do you know of a statute that requires them to count a payment as date received? I used to listen to a radio talk show host named Bruce Williams and I recall he was spearheading a drive a few years ago to require credit card companies to post a payment based on the postmark date. It, of course, was buried - no less than expected considering the lining of political pockets that credit card companies participate in. Most of my card agreements indicate they have "5 business days to post your payment". I am certain they will delay posting a payment received on time for no other reason than the late fee.
1-I don't know what law but I have read it in them somewhere more than once. The legal date paid is the date they say they received the Pmt. which may or may not be the day they actually received it. However this is not the actual or true day you paid it:! They have 24 hours to post it after they get the payment.Again this can be be 24 hours after they actually got it or 24 hours after any other day they claim to have gotten it. Hmm______Wonner howe dey gets by wit stikin us whit all of den dare unowed late fees? Guess it's ok fer dim to do dat doe Cause we ins needs to keep dim in busniess! -------========================-----
SPEAKING OF WHEN THEY CLAIM TO GET IT...I had a late fee on a card because they claimed to get it on a date that was IMPOSSIBLE...it had been charged against my checking account for about 8 days... I WAS TOLD IT WAS A COMPUTER ERROR, THEY WERE SORRY...SURE!!!
I know george but it's our duty to put up with unfair unethical treatment because we need a legalized con operation doing buiness in the good old USA.
In my travels (and travails), I have found that the lack of savings is the root of most delinquency reported to credit files.
Oh I get it if I put a zillion $s in my savings account and then mail the payments this will stop the CC CO.s from lieing about when I paid the bills. How Clever-Why dodn't i think of that?
You just did! You are to be truly congratulated on being an original thinker and the first to come up with that one. Congratulations!
Check that are sent in the regular Statement envelope that have the Code on front should post in 7-10 days after mailing.. If you send the payment in just a plain white envelope , it will delay your payment posting by 4-5 days.. Also do not send more than one check in the envelope.. The check that you send in your Regular statement envelope , Is scanned and is snt to Payment processing to apply to your account.. If there is more than one check in the envelope , you run the risk of not getting it posted to your account.. Same thing goes if you have two accounts with the same Company.. You send both checks and statements in the same Coded envelope .. These payments are processed by machines,, not people.. There are a lot of times when one account will get credited and the other one will not..
iT DOSEN'T MATTER When it post it's still legally paid the date they received it what ever day that is!
And if you send 4 checks in 4 seperate envelopes you have 4 times the chance that at least one of them will be lost in the mail.
The law has always said the postmark is the legally paid date. All Williams was trying to do was have their exemption from the law revoked. I guess they deserve special treatment and are above the law b/c they are so urgently needed. =================================
