How to Legally Deal With a Late Credit Card Payment?

Answer 1

Even the most financially organized person may find that they have inadvertently missed a credit card payment. It is inevitable that you will remember just a couple days past the due date, but there are a couple measures for removing the late payment before it does any damage to your credit report.

Call the Creditor Immediately

It is important to call the creditor as soon as you notice that you have passed your payment due date. Don’t depend on email or mail, because this results in more time passing and the payment becoming even later. Call the creditor and let them know of your error (or if it’s their error, if it is) and apologize.

Ask the Credit Card Company to Remove the Late Fee

Often creditors will remove the late fee associated with the late payment if you ask. This is of course only if you are not habitually late and if you explain why the payment is late, it is usually waived.

Ask that the Payment is Not Reported as Late

Most companies don’t report a late payment until it is past 30 days so if you are just a couple days past due, you may be okay. Make sure to make it a point when you speak with the creditor. If the payment is still reported as 30 days late, it won’t harm your credit much. 60 days late probably will, but I doubt a payment is accidentally missed when you get to 60 days. As I noted in the beginning, if your payments are consistently late, it will damage your credit report, but one payment a year may not.

Set Up Automatic Payment

This method of payment helps a lot of credit cardholders to stay on top of their payments without worrying that they may accidentally miss one. It is best to schedule the automatic payment a few days before the actual due date to insure that it is always on time. If you want to make an extra payment or pay more, you still have the option of doing so.

Things come up and late payments are a fairly common mistake that consumers make.