How To Make Sure You Pay Your Credit Card Bills On Time

Credit cards can cost you an arm and a leg when you miss a payment. Even skipping your due date by a day can tack on $100s in fees in the blink of an eye. Whether the late settling of the bill is your fault or not, the same penalties will apply. Once you see the charges it incurs on your next bill, you’re never going to want to pay late again.

Automate It

The single easiest way to ensure that you never miss a due date is to automate your bills payment. Unless you’re keeping your money with the most obscure rural banks in America, chances are that your bank has an online facility that allows you to settle bill payments on schedule.

Ask your bank for their electronic payments system (EPS) and get acquainted with it. Even if you’re not very comfortable with computers, most EPS interfaces should be simple enough to easily get the hang of. With these online systems, you can schedule your monthly bills the day they come in the mail. It should take no more than 5 to 10 minutes to add a new payment schedule in most systems (probably even shorter if you’re already well-versed in the system). That way, you’re guaranteed timely payments regardless of whether the due date fall on a holiday or the same week you’re in a vacation with the family.

Errors

Occasionally, the system will fail and you’ll see a late charge on your account. When you do, log on to your EPS and review the scheduled payments. Most of the time, late payments occur because of input errors - like putting in Aug 29 instead of Aug 19, for instance. In case the error is on the software side, contact your bank or the EPS provider and explain the situation - if it’s their fault, most companies will either settle the matter with the credit card issuer or reimburse you for the fees you incurred.