Late Payment

July 6, 2006 8:09 PM

I just realized that I had a credit card payment due on June 29th! I hadn't seen the alert in my e-mail box until tonight. I made a payment (50%+ of the balance) but I found out that it was late and the card company does not offer a grace period. What should I do? I don't want it to ruin my credit score.
posted by honorguy7 to Work & Money (15 answers total)

Call them. If you're a good customer they'll waive the fee and it won't reflect on your score. I've done this before (on a credit card and once on my mortgage) and as long as I called and said "oops! Mea culpa! You know I'm better than this momentary lapse" they've always been accomodating.
posted by macadamiaranch at 8:13 PM on July 6, 2006

Check your terms, but generally, late payments don't affect your credit school unless they're over 60 or 90 days late.

There may, however, be substantial penalties. You can call and give them a sob story and see if they'll waive the penalties, but no guarantees it will work.
posted by JMOZ at 8:14 PM on July 6, 2006

Your biggest weapon is the threat to cancel your credit card. They'll definitely waive your late fee / credit ding if you've previously been a good customer and threaten to close your account if they're not nice about accepting your late payment.
posted by u2604ab at 8:24 PM on July 6, 2006

Does your credit card company have a website where you can pay online? I have a capital one card and a card through my local bank, both of which you can pay online.

I don't belive late payments are reflected in your credit score unless they're more then 30 days late.
posted by delmoi at 8:46 PM on July 6, 2006

Credit card companies have become absolutely draconian in recent months. Worry less about your long term credit score and more about the very real possibility that they'll jack your interest rate from a reasonable single digit percentage up to a strangling loan shark amount in the 30's. It's more than likely that they'll do it, too. Call them and plead temporary insanity. Then set the account up so that you'll automatically pay the minimum amount every month so this never happens again.
posted by crunchland at 8:57 PM on July 6, 2006

Call and give the sob story. If it's your first payment, they'll probably waive or reduce the fee. (They will not, however, restore any promotional interest rates you might have had). I wouldn't bother threatening to cancel, I'm sure they hear that all the time and nobody cancels over one late payment charge.

In order to prevent future late payments, i would recommend setting up a program (I like Kana Reminder) to give you an automatic monthly reminder before the due date. Skim over your old statements to see if your due date is constant or tends to "float" a few days.

I know you didn't ask for this type of advice, but several late payments will hurt you more than one, so hopefully you find this helpful.
posted by MrZero at 8:59 PM on July 6, 2006

What's the company? Let us know the results of your call.
posted by rolypolyman at 9:01 PM on July 6, 2006

You paid 50% of the balance or 50% of the minimum payment? It sounds like the former, thus no big deal whatsoever. It's missing the min. payments that are bad.
posted by umlaut at 9:10 PM on July 6, 2006

A few things to kinda wrap up the good, bad, and ugly:

- The "grace period" is the time allowed to make a payment without incurring late charges or finance charges; I'm almost 100% positive that your card does have a grace period (that you missed)
- Like delmoi said, don't worry about the credit score because you're less than 30 days past due and you've already made the payment now
- Like crunchland said, DO be worried that they'll jack up your APR because you're late; they do this all the time, they do it without notice (until your next statement), it's often double your current rate
- People think that threatening to cancel is a good thing, I have my doubts; CSRs have the ability to make notes in their system that you'll NEVER see, and I wonder if sometimes they record the fact that you're making idle threats to save 30 bucks and when it comes time to increase your credit limit or lower your APR, these negative notes might come into the equation (just something to think about)
- Please relax; it's not the end of the world, your life shouldn't be impacted by credit to the point where you're freaking out (unless you're about to buy a house or car)
posted by SeizeTheDay at 9:25 PM on July 6, 2006

Also: consider using billQ, which touts itself as:

...a new web-based application that gives you an easy way to keep track of your bills. With billQ, you can make sure you always know exactly what you have to pay, and when you have to pay it.

I don't know much about the site, other than I've bookmarked it to review in the future. But it sounds as if it may be useful for you.
posted by jdroth at 9:58 PM on July 6, 2006

I stand by my threat to cancel. I have too many idle credit cards in my desk drawrer to put up with bad behaviour from any of my card issuers. It really is no skin off my back to close an account and move all balances to another, friendlier, company.
posted by u2604ab at 10:16 PM on July 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

If you are don't have any other late fees, tell them to refund all of your fees and restore your good interest rate. If the phone grunt doesn't want to do that say you will hold for the supervisor. Be polite but firm. If they still refuse to restore the good rate, balance transfers usually get wonderful rates and be sure to mention it to them.
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 11:07 PM on July 6, 2006

Call, or email, and ask nicely before you get all threat-y. Do it now, before your next statement and they can take the charge off before they even put it on. I've had great success doing this, even with Citibank, who seems to be the worst about it.

Then, not to belabor the point, check to see if your card has a "schedule your payment in advance" option on the web, and start scheduling your payments as soon as you get the statement.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 3:00 AM on July 7, 2006

Where are you?


If you your in the UK you can claim back all of your late payment charges.
posted by verisimilitude at 5:50 AM on July 7, 2006

Ask nicely. They'll waive any fees and maintain your current interest rate. (Doublecheck on the interest rate just to make sure.)
posted by desuetude at 6:07 AM on July 7, 2006