As much as I’d like to think that I’m immune to mistakes, that’s far from the truth. Just the other day, I bought the wrong type of sauce at the grocery store and had to carve out the time for a return trip due to that blunder. And as a writer, I’m quite certain that if you were to ask my editors, they’d say I make my share of typos, even with a spell-checking program at my disposal (hey, it doesn’t catch everything).
But last month, I made a pretty big financial blunder — I completely forgot to pay my credit card bill by its due date. And while it was an innocent mistake in its own right, it almost led to some pretty bad consequences.
Why I failed to pay my credit card bill
Each month, my various credit card issuers send me an email letting me know that my statements are ready to be viewed and paid. Once I see those emails, I typically log into my various accounts, review my balances to make sure I recognize all of the purchases listed, and then schedule a payment from my checking account.
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It’s a simple enough process. Only last month, for some reason, one of those emails landed in my spam folder. Because of this, I never went in and scheduled my credit card payment. And I didn’t realize that until my bill was almost a full month late.
When you get a reprieve
When I first realized that I’d failed to pay my credit card bill, I panicked. But then I realized that the situation wasn’t exactly dire.
Because the balance wasn’t so large, a few weeks of interest wasn’t the biggest deal, even when combined with a late payment fee. And also, credit card companies usually don’t report late payments to the credit bureaus until they’re 30 days past due. Since I was within that window, I knew that I at least wasn’t facing a major credit score hit.
To be clear, your credit score can take a dive after a single late payment. It’s just that I wasn’t late enough for that to be reported.
However, I actually didn’t end up suffering any negative consequences at all. That’s because I called my credit card issuer and explained what had happened.
Since my account was in good standing and I have a long history of paying my bills on time and in full, my credit card company was willing to let my mistake slide. It waived the interest and a late fee because I was able to pay my bill in full on the spot. The fact that I also wasn’t so late on my balance worked to my advantage.
Avoiding a repeat situation
Last month’s blunder made me realize that relying on a reminder email to pay my credit card bills is simply not a good system. So now, I have a new system. I have my credit card bills set up to autopay each month from my checking account, and I have a calendar reminder set to review each statement the day after it closes.
That date is different across my various credit cards, so it’s hard to keep track of in my head. But even with my bills being paid automatically, it’s important for me to review those statements to make sure they’re accurate and that there aren’t fraudulent charges on my accounts.
If you’ve been using a system that’s similar to mine to keep up with your credit card bills, I suggest you ditch it in case you, too, fall victim to a reminder email winding up in your spam.
My credit card company was nice about the incident, but they didn’t have to be. And if you’re a newer account holder or don’t have the best history of paying your bills on time, then you may not get the same leeway I did. So your best bet is to avoid a situation where you’re at your credit card issuer’s mercy in the first place.
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