Ramafications of unpaid credit card

[Katndav]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

Two questions:
1) Is a crediat card considered paid on time if it is mailed prior to the due date, but arrives at the credit card company after the due date?

2) If you then recieve a late fee on said credit card and refuse to pay, therefore acquiring late fees and finance charges each month, what are the ramifications of this? What type of power does the consumer have in this situation and what can the credit card company "do" to you?

[Wirelessany1]

Originally Posted by Katndav

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

Two questions:
1) Is a crediat card considered paid on time if it is mailed prior to the due date, but arrives at the credit card company after the due date?

2) If you then recieve a late fee on said credit card and refuse to pay, therefore acquiring late fees and finance charges each month, what are the ramifications of this? What type of power does the consumer have in this situation and what can the credit card company "do" to you?

1 - In order for your credit card payment to be considered on time, the payment has to be posted by the due date.

2 - You agreed to the assessing of late fees when you accepted the terms and conditions of the credit card.

The ramifications of mishandling your account are less money in your pocket due to higher interst rates and, a crappy FICO,

[JETX]

Originally Posted by Katndav

1) Is a crediat card considered paid on time if it is mailed prior to the due date, but arrives at the credit card company after the due date?

No. Payment is not 'made' until received.

2) If you then recieve a late fee on said credit card and refuse to pay, therefore acquiring late fees and finance charges each month, what are the ramifications of this?

They will report your NEGATIVE history to the CRA's and your credit history will be impacted.

What type of power does the consumer have in this situation and what can the credit card company "do" to you?

You have the 'power' to pay on time. They have the power to 'whack' your credit, sue, get a judgment and pursue you until you pay.

[debtor2008]

you should get a major cc from an establishment at which you can pay it in person. such as sears, they have a sears mastercard and or a visa card, or even from your bank. i have a mastercard from chase bank and make my payment monthly at the establishment. you can even make them on the due date in person. that way you will avoid any and all late fees.

[CourtClerk]

Originally Posted by debtor2008

you should get a major cc from an establishment at which you can pay it in person. such as sears, they have a sears mastercard and or a visa card, or even from your bank. i have a mastercard from chase bank and make my payment monthly at the establishment. you can even make them on the due date in person. that way you will avoid any and all late fees.

Yeah, like us regular folks have time to go running around from store to store to pay our credit card bills....

[cosine]

Originally Posted by Katndav

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

Two questions:
1) Is a crediat card considered paid on time if it is mailed prior to the due date, but arrives at the credit card company after the due date?

This is quite easily seen as your fault, unless you allowed for a very reasonable excess time for the postal service to deliver. I consider 1 full week to be the norm. If it's due on the 14th, have it at the post office early enough to be postmarked on the 7th, or the equivalent (extra day) when leaving it in your mailbox outgoing.

Just be glad you have not run into cases where things get lost in delivery or processing for 3 weeks. I had this case with an electric company once. I called in when I got a disconnection notice. I sent in payment 3 weeks before. Fortunately this was a company that had not outsourced their receiving/posting operation. The supervisor I talked to looked up my account and noticed that it had just posted on the computer. She then went over to the room where they were doing the posting and actually found my envelope and confirmed it had been postmarked 3 weeks before. She then did a quick investigation and found the entire bag of mail one person was working on was all 3 weeks old. I got a chuckle when she told me she just called the engineering department and told them to suspend ALL disconnections until she could clear up the accounts.

In another case, a credit card company placed my account in collections for non-payment when in fact they had applied the payment to the wrong account. They jacked my rate up because of their mistake. "Personal responsibility" is entirely non-existent among these corporate executives.

Anyway, do mail your payment in a full week ahead. This should be easier to do when the new law requiring credit card companies to begin to act more responsibly kicks in. Then if it gets posted late, you have the right to raise holy hell (but it still might be the postal service's fault). If it happens often, allow more time for future payments.