Will this result in bad credit?
My new credit card seems to have a shorter grace period than my old one. I
got my statement about a week or so ago, and I was surprised to see that my
payment is due on July 7 (at 1 PM). Since I'd have to mail it on Tuesday
(since Monday is a holiday), I'm not confident that it would get there by 1 PM
on Thursday.
So my question is, if my payment (which is for the full balance) is late by 1
or 2 days, would that affect my credit standing? I know I'd be charged some
late fees, but does that affect my credit?
-One usually must be > 30 days late before a black mark appears on the
credit report.
-The shrinking payment window is yet another trick CCs use to generate
fees. There is a way around this. Many cards now have online access.
Set the day after the statement becomes available online as the date
you review the statement, and then use online banking to schedule the
payment appropriately.
My printed statement for one card typically arrives at least a full
week after the online statement is available, and more often two weeks
elapse. If I waited for printed statements, I wouldn't be able to go
out of town or let invoices pile up for a week until payment day. I
have no idea how they manage to get the printed statements out as late
as they do, but once I figured out how to thwart the game, I no longer
care.
If, OTOH, you have a card that demands payment more than 4 or 5 days
prior to reconciliation and statement generation, dump them. There is
no justification for such terms.
The next game? I expect some cards will be regularly changing the
payment address to misdirect mail and delay payments - especially from
those using 3rd party online bill paying services, where a returned
piece of mail goes to someone who may not care about notifying the
person paying the bill about the new payment address.
"You've got to know when to hold them, Know when to fold them"