Avoid Credit Card Late Fees

By Clark Hunter

One of the easiest ways to mess up your credit is to rack up late fees. Not only does paying late, even a day, negatively impact your credit but it incurs a late fee that can easily send you over your limit. Once you are over your limit you may be assessed an additional over the limit fee and this occurrence will also impact your credit in a bad way. So, what’s one of the best things you can do to protect your credit? The answer is to avoid credit card late fees. But, if money is tight or you have difficulty remembering when payments are due what can be done to avoid late fees? The following tips will help you out considerably.

Tip #1 Pay Online

The best way to avoid credit card late fees is to pay online. You can set up your payments months in advance and even have an email sent to you a week in advance reminding you that your payment will be drafted on a particular date. When you set up this automatic payment then you are sure to avoid credit card late fees because you know when your payment will occur every month and it doesn’t require you to remember the due date. Keep in mind, however, that before your bank account is drafted you need to make sure to make a deposit so the check will clear.

Tip #2 Pay When You Receive the Statement

Another way to avoid credit card late fees is to pay your statement as soon as you receive it. That means when your statement comes in the mail you simply take out your checkbook, write a check, and mail it at the same time. Not letting yourself put the statement down or put it in the “bills to pay” pile will ensure that you make your payment on time and avoid over the limit fees.

Tip #3 Pay off Your Balance

A surefire way to avoid credit card late fees is to pay off your balance. When you pay off your balance there is no balance left to pay on so you won’t need to make monthly payments at all. Occasionally you may have an annual fee to pay so you should always open up your mail to make sure no payment is required.

Once in a while if you know your payment is going to be late and you call you can avoid a late payment fee. Some credit card companies offer this “favor” once a year for certain situations. There are also some programs called credit protection plans that cost a couple of dollars a month to protect you in the event your payment is late or you are financially unable to pay. Regardless, if you really want to make sure you don’t ever have any more credit card late fees you just need to get rid of the credit cards!

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