The Truth About Credit Cards.com

With credit card late fees on the rise and associated costs more severe, it’s important now more than ever to ensure you make timely payments each month.

While conventional methods for paying credit cards still exist, such as snail mail and telephone payments, there is a much better method available today that is free, fast, and secure, and may help you avoid late payments.

I’m talking about electronic payments, which you can easily set-up with your credit card issuer to quickly and safety send payments online from your bank account to any of your credit card providers.

I prefer electronic credit card payments because they’re easy to execute, well documented, much faster than payment via the postal service, and don’t carry associated fees that often come with telephone payments.

At the same time, I oversee each payment I make and steer clear of automatic Billpay for a number of reasons. (See my automatic Billpay drawbacks post.)

You may think this tip is obvious, but I’m constantly amazed by how many people continue to pay their credit card bill(s) using traditional methods, with some even incurring fees to use the pay-by-phone option.

It’s really quite simple to set-up electronic payments online, and there’s no good reason why you shouldn’t be paying this way.

The Fair Credit Billing Act requires that credit card issuers send your statement at least two weeks before the payment due date, but it may take days to arrive.

And once you do receive it, the more time you waste not sending in a payment, the better the chance you’ll miss a payment, which will result in a late fee and possible credit score repercussions.

Not to mention universal credit default, which could quickly turn a 0% APR credit card into a credit card monster with APR above 30%.

Let’s face it. It’s not fun making your credit card payment(s) each month, but why lick stamps and risk a late payment when you can point and click online and get things done in minutes.

It’s enough that credit card issuers charge us finance charges, so why let them hit us with fees for late payments, over-the-limit fees, and more?

And remember, credit card issuers won’t waste a minute penalizing you if you’re even a day late in making a payment.