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The Late Credit Card Payment
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Many circumstances cause a late credit card payment. I'll review a few of these, offer tips to avoid a late credit card payment, and ultimately discuss who's to blame.
Have you received a late payment fee on your credit card? A late fee is billed to your credit card when your payment has not reached the bank on or before the due date. These days, credit card companies do not take into consideration when the payment was mailed. It's late if it's not in their hands by the due date.
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If you've mailed your payment and it does not reflect on your account, what do you do? The first step, you'll need to contact your bank to verify if the payment has been cashed. If the payment has been cashed, contact your credit card issuer. This situation is considered a misposted payment. Your payment was applied to an incorrect account. A misposted payment is the banks error and can usually be corrected with a copy of the front and back of the cleared check or money order. If it's not cashed and was mailed at least 14 business days prior, send a replacement payment. The original probably got lost in the mail (No, your credit card issuer is not holding it :-)).
Another cause of a late credit card payment is an underencoded payment. This is an additional error on the credit card side. An underencoded payment posts for an amount less than the check was written for. For example, the check was written for $100.00 and only posted for $10.00. An underencoded payment only results in a late payment if the payment posts for less than your minimum due.
A returned check may also result in a late payment. Unfortunately, a returned check is not an error on the credit card's part, although it could be an error on your bank's side. If so, a courtesy letter from your bank may resolve any associated fees with the credit card. A returned check may not result in a late payment if you replace the returned check by your payment due date.
Now for some final reasons you may have a late payment. All following reasons are "controllable" by the customer. They are considered customer error in most situations. Your credit card may or may not give you a courtesy credit for your late fee.
Read some tips to avoid a late payment fee.
- The payment got mailed late or not at all.
- The bill was not received, therefore you forgot to pay it.
- You were traveling and did not make arrangements to pay your bill before you left.
- There wasn't a stamp on your envelope and it was returned to you by the post office.
- You moved and did not notify your credit card directly of the new address, therefore you didn't receive your bill.
- Your bill pay service was not accessible on your payment due date or paid your bill late.
Here's some additional late payment reasons that are not necessarily controllable by the customer. These are definitely taken into consideration by credit card companies when it comes to removing a late payment fee.
- hurricanes or other natural disasters
- medical emergencies or hospitalization
- family death
One late credit card payment is not detrimental to your credit. Some banks don't even report you to the credit bureaus until you go 60 days or more past due. If you are in a bad situation, check with your specific credit card to find out what you can do. Now that you know the causes of late credit card payments, try to avoid the ones you can and work with the ones you can't. Always remember though, you do have
options to get your payment in on time.
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