Avoid Costly Late Fees On Your Credit Cards

Credit card late fees are a fact of life for some consumers, but they don’t have to be. Legally, credit card companies can hit you with pretty much whatever fees they want. Here are five sure fire ways you can avoid costly credit card late fees:

Pay Before the Due Date

Of course, this makes the most sense, however, this is also the single most important reason why people get socked with fees. People receive their bill and immediately forget about it! When you get your bill, open it up and pay it promptly. Waiting means forgetting and forgetting about your credit card bill will cost you money.

Pay on the Internet

Paying online is the best way to make certain that your payment gets to your credit card provider on time. Be careful if you are paging direct from your checking account instead of the provider’s site. When paying from a checking account. there can be a gap in between when the funds are sent to when your payment is applied. The gap between the two can be as long as a week. Keep this lag time in mind or avoid it altogether by always using the provider’s site. The gap between the two can be as long as one week!

Schedule Automatic Payments

Some credit card providers allow for you to set up a scheduled deduction from your checking account each month. Be sure that you always have the funds in your account, however, or you could be hit with an overdraft charge. You can always send in a separate, extra payment if you want to pay down your debt faster too.

Question a Late Payment

Even if the credit card company claims that your payment was late, it doesn’t mean that you must be charged a late fee. Contact the company and ask them to reverse their charge and to expunge their records of your tardiness. Most companies will allow this occasionally if you are not habitually late. You not only want to avoid any fees, you want to avoid their possible notification of your lateness to the three major credit report agencies [Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax]. Any negative information supplied to the credit reporting agencies can work against you in the form of higher interest rates on current cards as well as on future loans!

Look for a card with no late fees

These are not very common and generally only available to those with extremely high credit scores. If your credit is excellent, you can give one of the no late fee cards a try. Always be sure to read the terms and conditions, however. You do not want to be caught off guard down the road by expected fees.

Taking the appropriate action can help you to avoid costly late fees and allow for you to keep more of your money in your pocket. Become better informed and start saving money today!