Check your CC due dates....

[finite automaton]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: alkemyst
Most will not agree with auto pay being the smart move. There are a lot of horror stories and if you were to be affected you are out cold hard cash until resolved.

ding ding ding Winner! give this man a cigar!

have YOUR bank's billpay send the $ to the credit card company. NEVER let the credit card company (or anybody you owe) pull $ from your acct.

toooooooo many things can go wrong somewhere down the line. and all the headaches that go along with it. even if 1 thing goes wrong it's not worth it.

I've had my CC company pull money from my account since the day I opened it, no issues.

Only company I've ever had issues with is Macy's, but it is apparently widely agreed upon that their online system sucks majorly.

Edit: I only use my CC for a few reasons. Every transaction is documented, if something goes wrong with the product and I have to return it , I don't have to worry about the cash ever having left my pocket... rewards, interest on the money sitting in bank account, etc... I pay off all my cards every month except for one, but that one is the bug in my ass from poor spending habits during my late teen years (23 now). It's actually been good for me in a sense because no one else ever tried to teach me good spending habits, I've had to learn it on my own.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
Most will not agree with auto pay being the smart move. There are a lot of horror stories and if you were to be affected you are out cold hard cash until resolved.

And most of those stories are made up fairy tales to scare people. Fairy tales told by people who don't know what they are talking about, haven't seen the laws, and have never tried it themselves.

The "worst" thing that could happen is you have to keep ~$20 in your checking account for a bill that you owe anyways.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Lothar
Why would anyone want to pay only the "minimum payment" rather than the full balance?
I have auto debit for all my credit card accounts and it's setup to pay the full balance due.

I don't have to worry about coming back to pay the remaining amount, or seeing a finance charge added to my next billing statement.

1) Checking accounts pay little to no interest. Thus, it is financially better to have the money in other accounts and transfer it to checking shortly before paying the bill. This move alone will gain $2.5 a month for a typical person. That isn't a lot, but it does add up.

2) It is easy to become lazy or forgetful if you have it auto pay the full bill. This means that (a) you might not have the money in your checking account and you will face massive fees and/or possible jail time in some states, (b) you aren't really watching what you spend each month which often means you spend far more than you intend. Neither option is a good option.

Thus, have it set up to auto pay $20 (or whatever your minimum is) each and every month. You never have a late fee, you never have a late payment on your credit statement. You still have to watch your spending and pay your bills when you have money in your account. It is just the safest, highest return, and most intelligent way of doing things.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: moshquerade
How do you buy airline tix or shop online? Use someone else's CC?

Debit card. Only time I ever used my CC was when I forgot my debit card.

Originally posted by: Lothar
I was late in paying my AMEX bill 2 months ago.
The due date was on a Sunday. I paid it online on Monday morning the next day around 7:30am before going to work. I didn't call anyone, and I never received any finance charges on last months statement or the current one.

Anyone think they noticed? I didn't even bother to call them for anything. I just kept quiet.

From what I've seen, most creditors won't apply a late fee unless you haven't paid by the time they process your next bill. For example, my card is due on the 4th and they process on the 9th... as long as I get it in before the 9th, there's usually no issue. Now, there's guaranteed no issue if I get it in before the 4th .

 

[SnipeMasterJ13]

Originally posted by: CRXican

Originally posted by: Mo0o
Dont do autopay?

how do you autopay a credit card?

you don't know that you're going to spend

I'm not sure if this is an option on all cards, but the Chase card I have lets me do a minimum payment via autopay. I always go in and pay it off completely but I set it up just in case I somehow forget, I don't get nailed with late charges.

Definitely a nice little safety net since it's free.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: Lothar
Why would anyone want to pay only the "minimum payment" rather than the full balance?
I have auto debit for all my credit card accounts and it's setup to pay the full balance due.

I don't have to worry about coming back to pay the remaining amount, or seeing a finance charge added to my next billing statement.

1) Checking accounts pay little to no interest. Thus, it is financially better to have the money in other accounts and transfer it to checking shortly before paying the bill. This move alone will gain $2.5 a month for a typical person. That isn't a lot, but it does add up.

2) It is easy to become lazy or forgetful if you have it auto pay the full bill. This means that (a) you might not have the money in your checking account and you will face massive fees and/or possible jail time in some states, (b) you aren't really watching what you spend each month which often means you spend far more than you intend. Neither option is a good option.

Thus, have it set up to auto pay $20 (or whatever your minimum is) each and every month. You never have a late fee, you never have a late payment on your credit statement. You still have to watch your spending and pay your bills when you have money in your account. It is just the safest, highest return, and most intelligent way of doing things.

1.) Depends. With PenFed, they don't auto debit the account until almost a week after the due date. If I had to do things manually, I would have to pay 1 week earlier like everyone else who didn't sign up. It's not only checking accounts you can link. You can link savings accounts in most cases as well which would make the "interest bearing" part moot.

2.) Yes, but why go halfway? Why not just get rid of auto paying minimum payments since it's easy to get lazy or forgetful as well. Might as well go all paper statements and mail bills by check.
Not having money isn't an issue for me. I know how much on average is in my checking account at all times without accessing an ATM or checking online. Don't spend what you don't have.
I fail to see a correlation between auto paying the balance in full and increases in unnecessary spending.

Again if you forget and only end up paying minimum payments, interest starts to accumulate, and you also lose your grace period.

I'd rather pay everything all at once automatically when due than to wake up one day and say "oh sh*t". That's what happened to me with AMEX that I described above. That's why I pay all my balances in full automatically.

 

[Fritzo]

They have to contact you to do that by law (they're adjusting the terms of the loan). Call them and they'll take the fees off if this is the first time it happened. I guarantee.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
Can't, don't have any.

How do you buy airline tix or shop online? Use someone else's CC?

Do you carry a lot of cash instead?

I know there are people who won't get a CC b/c they are afraid of getting into debt with them, but that's crazy. Just pay it off in full each month. It's like I got to borrow their money interest free for 30 days.

I actually have had them in the past, but it just wasn't worth it. I seldom used them more than once or twice a year anyway. Now I just use other people's, or I pick up a prepaid for specific purposes and then discard them.

I work on a 100% cash basis. Don't even have checks. Actually, I don't have a bank account either - at least not with any money in it (only use it to cash checks).

Do you stuff money under your mattress?
Either that or you must be a welfare recipient.

I have a couple safes at different locations, but mostly I live just within my means. When you make under 30k a year, and sometimes only 10k a year, you don't tend to save up a tremendous amount. I don't think I've ever had more than about 20k on hand in my life, so it's just not that big of a deal.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: alkemyst
Most will not agree with auto pay being the smart move. There are a lot of horror stories and if you were to be affected you are out cold hard cash until resolved.

And most of those stories are made up fairy tales to scare people. Fairy tales told by people who don't know what they are talking about, haven't seen the laws, and have never tried it themselves.

The "worst" thing that could happen is you have to keep ~$20 in your checking account for a bill that you owe anyways.

$20? WTF?

Try autopaying at 3 figures and just hope that they don't run multiple payments or get hacked.

It will get resolved, but in the mean time you are shit out of your cash.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: allisolm

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Lothar
Do you stuff money under your mattress?
Either that or you must be a welfare recipient.

QFT..we have a lot of losers around here that almost brag at the checkout: "CREDIT CARD? BAH I USE CASH ONLY!"

meanwhile I have to wait for them to flip through all the money they own in the world 20 times to find 'a ten or five' because "I DON'T USUALLY CARRY SMALL BILLS"

Look dickwads, if you only use cash you should be carrying small bills. Those that are only carrying large bills, usually have debit / credit and are using that cash as insurance if they run into a place that doesn't take plastic or need to split a bill.

Well, those losers aren't paying late fees because they can't figure out when their credit card bills are due and those losers aren't paying off $27,000 in credit card debt so maybe if they annoy you a little bit that's a good thing.

Really nice coming from a moderator and elite.

My CC debt is not extraordinary.

What the fuck was your point?



We've been over this ground before. Calling a mod out when they were posting as a member isn't allowed. Because of your past history, your vacation was determined by mods discussing you in a separate thread. Your time off is 2 months.


esquared
Anandtech Senior Moderator

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
I do everything online so I don't rely on paper statements so much. I pay more than my minimums so I never really worry about over limit/etc. My due dates are recorded in a spreadsheet I use.

However; recently two accounts have had their due dates moved to about a week earlier than I have recorded.

I just caught one today I was going to pay for the 25th and it was due TODAY. $15 charge...they didn't want to take responsibility for the first iteration of this.

Just an FYI, I heard others mention this too on credit forums when I looked into it.

Å

Credit cards go on a 28 or 30 day cycle... of course your due date changes...
you cant just automatically plan that your CC will be due the 25th of every month.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: sao123

Originally posted by: alkemyst
I do everything online so I don't rely on paper statements so much. I pay more than my minimums so I never really worry about over limit/etc. My due dates are recorded in a spreadsheet I use.

However; recently two accounts have had their due dates moved to about a week earlier than I have recorded.

I just caught one today I was going to pay for the 25th and it was due TODAY. $15 charge...they didn't want to take responsibility for the first iteration of this.

Just an FYI, I heard others mention this too on credit forums when I looked into it.

Å

Credit cards go on a 28 or 30 day cycle... of course your due date changes...
you cant just automatically plan that your CC will be due the 25th of every month.

If the credit card used an exact 28 or 30 day cycle, then the due date would change every single month. I don't know about anyone else in this thread, but both of my 2 CCs have a fixed due date each month. IIRC, you can also change this date.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: sao123

Originally posted by: alkemyst
I do everything online so I don't rely on paper statements so much. I pay more than my minimums so I never really worry about over limit/etc. My due dates are recorded in a spreadsheet I use.

However; recently two accounts have had their due dates moved to about a week earlier than I have recorded.

I just caught one today I was going to pay for the 25th and it was due TODAY. $15 charge...they didn't want to take responsibility for the first iteration of this.

Just an FYI, I heard others mention this too on credit forums when I looked into it.

Å

Credit cards go on a 28 or 30 day cycle... of course your due date changes...
you cant just automatically plan that your CC will be due the 25th of every month.

If the credit card used an exact 28 or 30 day cycle, then the due date would change every single month. I don't know about anyone else in this thread, but both of my 2 CCs have a fixed due date each month. IIRC, you can also change this date.

Capt. Obvious left out some details. It's not always a 28 or 30 day cycle, but regardless of your cycle, it usually pushes past or pulls back in front of non-business days at the end of the cycle.

Quite a few cards have due dates you can set. You pick the day you want to pay each month and it's a solid due date. However, your grace period is a different matter and this is why this is actually a better deal for the credit company.

In my case they moved my new due date.

 

[Soapy Bones]

What gets me is when they not only change the due dates on a credit card, but they make them due on a Sunday.

We had this with our Giant Eagle card which we use for their fuel perks/food perks programs. The bill is paid online through our bank website - all of the sudden it went from a 1-2 day processing time to 3-5 days without any notice to us, apparently the bank is mailing a check instead of electronically transferring the funds. To top that off the credit card made a due date Nov 2nd, which is a Sunday. We set up the billpay to process on 10/31 and of course it never was paid until the 11/5. I have no idea why a bank should be allowed to get away with a due date of a saturday or a sunday when banks dont process the accounts on those days.

 

[alkemyst]

I followed up with WAMU this morning about my rate adjustment (it was 8.99%) they brought it down to only 23.99%. I mentioned the change of my due date and they explained it changed with the rate adjustment. Whatever, I paid them off along with Chase. I may close my checking and savings with WAMU next as I was a 10 year+ customer...I was with Providian since the 90's and WAMU when they opened here.

I don't make huge amounts of money, but the cash flow through my accounts is way above average.

The Balance Transfer I did also improved my credit utilization from 90% to about 50%...so I should qualify for much better deals soon.

 

[Penth]

Originally posted by: jtvang125
A shady tactic some CC use is requiring longer than usual processing time for online payments. Some say they require 3-4 days to process the payment. So if you pay within those last few days it's going to be late and they'll hit you with a late fee. Conveniently many of these CC that do this also have a rush payment option but with a pretty heavy fee.

In this day and age they should be able to post your payment same day (if you paid early enough in the day) or at the latest the next business day. I remember reading an article that Congress is going to start looking into these shady tactics being used by the CC companies.

If your credit card company does this I'd switch. I set up the payment on my amex at 8:00pm eastern time on the due date and it gets marked as paid the same day even if it doesn't come out of my account till the next.

 

[cubby1223]

I had that happen once many years ago, credit card was due every 30-31 days, then after some time it was "magically" switched to a 25 day billing cycle! I bitched them out on the phone and they caved. The fees were reversed.



Of course this is not as bad as a different credit card company who allowed a charge to be placed against a canceled account... Anyone want to figure that out I'll give them a gold star. I had a couple CS reps hang up on me while I was trying to figure out how they allowed a charge against a canceled account. When I'm placed on collections and they can't even tell me why...

Moral is, all credit card companies suck.

 

[mjrpes3]

Originally posted by: spidey07
This is why you ALWAYS read your statements that are mailed to you. They can and frequently do change your due dates.

I haven't noticed that with BofA. If my CC company could and frequently did change my due date then I could and most likely would change my CC company.

 

[mjrpes3]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles
BofA lost a $19 million dollar class-action lawsuit about five years ago for pulling this crap on its consumers.

I looked all over the internets for a description of this (google search: "bank of america" "due date" "class action") and did not get any hits

 

[nageov3t]

just to cover my ass, I set up auto-pay on my CC to at least pay the minimum balance every month in case I forget.

 

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: allisolm

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Lothar
Do you stuff money under your mattress?
Either that or you must be a welfare recipient.

QFT..we have a lot of losers around here that almost brag at the checkout: "CREDIT CARD? BAH I USE CASH ONLY!"

meanwhile I have to wait for them to flip through all the money they own in the world 20 times to find 'a ten or five' because "I DON'T USUALLY CARRY SMALL BILLS"

Look dickwads, if you only use cash you should be carrying small bills. Those that are only carrying large bills, usually have debit / credit and are using that cash as insurance if they run into a place that doesn't take plastic or need to split a bill.

Well, those losers aren't paying late fees because they can't figure out when their credit card bills are due and those losers aren't paying off $27,000 in credit card debt so maybe if they annoy you a little bit that's a good thing.

Really nice coming from a moderator and elite.

My CC debt is not extraordinary.

What the fuck was your point?

1. Moderators and elites are held to no higher strandard of posting than any other member. My own personal standards ARE higher, however. That's why I never refer to anyone as a loser or a dickwad, but that's just me.

2. Your credit card debt IS extraordinary. TransUnion said in June, 2008 that the National average credit card debt per credit card borrower is $1,673 and the Federal Reserve's latest Survey of Consumer Finances says the majority of U.S. households have no credit card debt. So that would make $27,000 "beyond what is usual" and "exceptional in... amount" which are the definitions of extraordinary.

3. I'm sorry you had difficulty understanding my point so I will try explain more clearly.
Instead of calling people who pay for things with cash because they choose not to have credit cards "losers", you might want to take a page from their book and use cash, since you have so many credit card issues.

That's all.

 

[Walking in Circles]

Bill comes in, I enter the full amount and due date into my online banking, bill goes into 'paid' pile. Issue solved.

alkemyst, *you* are a loser for having any credit card debt at all, and even thinking about carrying a balance on a credit card.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
I had that happen once many years ago, credit card was due every 30-31 days, then after some time it was "magically" switched to a 25 day billing cycle! I bitched them out on the phone and they caved. The fees were reversed.



Of course this is not as bad as a different credit card company who allowed a charge to be placed against a canceled account... Anyone want to figure that out I'll give them a gold star. I had a couple CS reps hang up on me while I was trying to figure out how they allowed a charge against a canceled account. When I'm placed on collections and they can't even tell me why...

Moral is, all credit card companies suck.

My guess is Capital One?

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: spidey07
This is why you ALWAYS read your statements that are mailed to you.

They can and frequently do change your due dates.

and therein lies the problem.

That should be criminal.

 

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: Walking in Circles
Bill comes in, I enter the full amount and due date into my online banking, bill goes into 'paid' pile. Issue solved.

Exactly! Doesn't seem all that difficult now, does it? And I never have to worry about what happens if I don't read my statements for 10 months.