CC Payment Due Date on Wkd or Holiday

[vnot]

Just wondering if someone could clarify something regarding the new CC regulations.

My Amazon Chase card payment was due 1/1/2011 (Saturday) and I figured I'd just schedule payment for Monday, 1/3/2011 and thought nothing of it because I'd read that if your payment landed on a holiday or weekend, you had until the next business day to pay it w/o incurring a late fee. Well Chase did charge me a $25 late fee.

I called to inquire about it and the rep waived the fee because of my history of paying on time but told me that it was a courtesy. I asked her about the new CC regulation regarding holiday/wkd due dates and she said what matters is when the payment posted. On my end, BofA debited my acct on 1/3/2011 and my Chase statement says that my payment posted 1/3/2011 as well. Unless there's something I'm not getting, I must admit, I am a bit annoyed nonetheless that I was charged.

I'll definitely make sure this doesn't happen again so I don't have to deal with it (ultimately being able to pay off CC completely!) but I just want to know....did I misunderstand something?

www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/wyntk_creditcardrules.htm

[Gardening Grandma]

Honestly, I'd never push it that close. You can plan on paying online within the time limit, but what if your internet access is down? What if their server is having problems? What if?
So I always pay it several days before the due date. I see nothing to be gained by paying at the last minute.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I never deliberately run things that close. Even when paying online, I always give several days before the due date. It just seems like an opportunity for something to screw up.

[piratesparrot]

I know I am stating the obvious but if you are going to wait until the last minute to make a payment and you have to choose the day before or the day after the due date due to a weekend or holiday doesn't it really make more sense to schedule it the day before the due date? How tight is the budget that one day makes that kind of difference?

[NastyWoman]

I too always pay several days in advance - and set the payment up the day I receive my bill just so I don't forget. However Pirate I can see how some people might need to wait until receiving their paycheck on Friday to pay the CC bill. It could especially be a problem if the company you work for does not "do" automatic deposits.

[TheOtherMe]

That is running things too close. I'm sure if you look at the card's website, it states that payments on Sunday or a holiday must be paid by either Friday or Saturday at 3 PM to be considered timely.

I'm another one who schedules my payments for about midway through the payment period. I don't want those late fees.

[vnot]

I understand everyone's advice to pay a couple days in advance; it's just a personal choice of mine that I pay everything on the due date from my online bill pay. Never had an issue before so it works for me.

I'm just curious as to if I'm misunderstanding the new regulation is all. Thanks.

[Deleted]

The link you posted states:
"If your payment due date is on a weekend or holiday (when the company does not process payments), you will have until the following business day to pay"

Soooo...
Now you know that your CC DOES process payment on holiday/weekends.

If it were ME, I would change the "personal choice of mine that I pay everything on the due date"...

pay earlier, or *gasp* as soon as the bill come in.

[Gardening Grandma]

From reading the regulation at the link you posted, No, I don't think you are misunderstanding the new regulation, and the CC company was wrong to charge you the late fee.

And I understand that it's your personal choice to pay at the last possible minute.

My question is - is it really worth the hassle of contacting the CC company when they charge you a late fee in error? How much time did you spend on the phone with them? Most of us prefer to pay a few days early simply to avoid the possibility of problems. And I'll point out (again) that should you continue to pay at the last possible minute, you run the risk of a server being down and your payment not being processed in time. Then you WILL legitimately owe a late fee.

[SVT]

I always try to pay on Friday if the due date falls on a weekend.

[DVM gone riding]

CC aren't like any other "bill" they expect their money to be posted and cleared by the date they tell you. Doesn't matter to them if it is a Sun and both Fri and Mon are holidays!! I don't think the new law changed this, but maybe, what it did change is they now have to give you a full months notice. So you get the bill on the 23rd it is due the following month on the 23rd NOT the 15th.

All other bills-incl mortgage, SL, the water bill etc give you an automatic 15 day "grace period" without even thinking about. Most water company's etc regardless of what it says just expect you to pay before the next one is due.

[Deleted]

I have Chase credit cards. They credit you the day before the payment drafts in my experience. So go ahead and pay them. You can test my theory while you have money in the bank to cover it if they don't.

Honestly, you should not be living your life to the point where you have to do this. I read somewhere that if you are, go ahead and schedule the minimum payment. That insures you won't get hit by the penalty,which can then affect your credit rating and your interest rate. Then if you have to shave it to the day, schedule the rest for that day. The worst that can happen is a few dollars interest, which is better than the late payment and the penalty interest rate.

Think about it.

[kinetickid]

Jan 8, 2011 6:48:46 GMT -5 @daphne87 said:

I never ever ever trust them to do what they're supposed to.

Me, neither. I always pay at least two or three days before the due date.

[vnot]

Thanks for the comments. I'll definitely consider everyone's suggestions.

[Angel!]

From the BOFA website:

The scheduled delivery date is the date you enter for the payment to be delivered to the Payee. For payments made by electronic transmission or corporate check, the payment amount will be debited from, or charged to the account that you designate on the scheduled delivery date. If the scheduled delivery date is a weekend or non-bank business day, then the delivery date will be the prior bank business day.

If I am understanding it right, then had you scheduled the payment for 1/1, then they would have sent the payment on 12/31. I am unclear if they would have debited your account on 12/31 or 1/1 though. I think you screwed up by intentionally setting the billpay date to be late. Had you scheduled it for 1/1, then I bet you would have been fine.

Just something I have noticed - often with bofa, I often get credited with the payment 2-3 days before the money actually gets pulled from my account. Of course I am pulling the money via bofa rather than pushing the money, so it a slightly different situation. But, my guess would be that had you scheduled the payment for 1/1, then the payment would have been recieved by chase on 12/31, but not actually been pulled from your account until 1/3.

[ziyia]

I have the same experience with BoFA. It credits to the cc a few days before it actually debits the checking account. I also have mine set up to pull. DH has his set up to push, and in that case, it takes a day or two after the money leaves the account to credit to the cc.

[souldoubt]

I always pay a few days in advance as well. If I schedule it 2 days before it's due the money usually leaves my account on the "due date" even though it shows as being paid 2 days before. This is using a chase bank account to pay a chase credit card too. If you schedule it the day of unfortunately there's really no margin for error and you leave it up the account you transfer the payment from and who you are paying it to as well to post it in time.

[Tiny]

Jan 8, 2011 18:39:23 GMT -5 vnot said:

I understand everyone's advice to pay a couple days in advance; it's just a personal choice of mine that I pay everything on the due date from my online bill pay. Never had an issue before so it works for me.

Wow. You've got a fantastic bank and cc company! I don't trust my bank/S&L or the CC company to actually process the transfer on the date I specify. I've seen my bank show the transfer of money on the 5th and the CC doesn't actually show it as being received until the 6th (or sometimes later). Doesn't happen often but I've seen it.
I've also had the CC change where the payment goes - so my bank faithfully did the ACH (not a paper check) on the appointed day (as it did successfully for a year) only to have the transfer fail. The bank, as a courtesy tried a second and third time each failed and so as an additional courtesy it sent a paper check to the address on file (which also failed). I wasn't checking either bank or cc often and it was nearly 2 weeks before I found out my payment didn't get processed when it was suppose to have been done. Thankfully, I had set up the payment to go out 3 days after I got the bill so I was able to get it straightened out at the bank (updated my bill pay) and paid without having to deal with a late payment or the CC.
I normally set up my payments to go 5 business days (weekends are typically business days these das) before the due date. And then I verify the payments were made the day before the due dates. I set up all my CC accounts to have similiar due dates so it's not like I'm checking every day...