Stupid, stupid me

[frgsnlzrds]

I need the dancing smiley! I just called today and the rep on the phone told me that there was no interest hike and my account wasn't even showing a late fee. Yippee! LOL she even told me they were there to help, "not to snatch the money" from me! I have learned my lesson!


I don't know why I didn't write the date the bill was due. I don't know why I forgot to change the date on my desk calendar. I don't know why I didn't automatically check what bills were due on a payday!

Now my cc payment was due yesterday and I called at 9AM to see if there was anyway we could just pretend I paid yesterday. I begged.

Basically, I can kiss my 5.99 apr goodbye. I will get a late fee and a huge apr hike. I might have been able to get out of it if I hadn't had such huge trouble with them a couple months ago and I made them erase a late fee and an extra $100 finance charge for something that was not my fault but they refused to acknowledge their website may have a computer error. So I even opted out of the normal interest rate hike and can't use the card but can pay it off at the normal rate UNTIL it's late.

I can't believe my stupid stupid stupid mistake. :duh: This is seriously going to cost me. I can't wait until monday to see how high it can go.

Credit cards are :icon_twisted:

[MamaMolly]

Oooooh, big, big hugs on this one. DH just nailed his d!ck to the floor with this recently. But here we are a few months later and things have worked to our advantage because he joined a Credit Union and got the balance transferred to a new one in the 2% range. So while this is tragic today, it is salvagable tomorrow.

Good luck, and I bet it is one of those things you only do wrong ONCE. Go easy on yourself.

[ThreeofUs]

Oh, I *hate* making mistakes like this! Sorry!

[Momof3Labs]

Balance transfer to a new card??

And a tip I once heard was to set up an automatic monthly payment before your due date for the minimum payment, and then, monthly, manually enter an additional payment for the amount over the min that you are paying. That way, at least your minimum payment is always made on time.

[alexsmommy]

Balance transfer to a new card??

And a tip I once heard was to set up an automatic monthly payment before your due date for the minimum payment, and then, monthly, manually enter an additional payment for the amount over the min that you are paying. That way, at least your minimum payment is always made on time.

Good tip. Because I did this recently too on my only CC... and no, you don't want to know in this economic environment just how high they will hike your interest even if you have been a good customer. Grrrr.

Sorry this happened.

As far as balance tranfers... we used to get more than one offer in the mail DAILY. Now, not so much. Ugh. Fricking, fracking recession.

[niccig]

Good tip. Because I did this recently too on my only CC... and no, you don't want to know in this economic environment just how high they will hike your interest even if you have been a good customer. Grrrr.
.

I did the same thing last week. I've set up a minimum payment for all so in the future, at least that will go through. My saving grace is that it was DH's credit card that he's had since college, and only use it for a few things. We want it active for the credit rating. So, it gets paid off every month and a higher APR won't matter.

I agree with the others, see about a balance transfer. One of our cards is offering that. And our credit union are offering consolidation loans for debt at a pretty low rate.

[frgsnlzrds]

And a tip I once heard was to set up an automatic monthly payment before your due date for the minimum payment, and then, monthly, manually enter an additional payment for the amount over the min that you are paying. That way, at least your minimum payment is always made on time.

That is a really nice idea! It won't stop me from paying an extra $100 amonth finance charge, but it'll make sure this never happens again. I'll have to check if I can do this through the cc website, or my bank's website.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one making stupid mistakes! :D

[mommylamb]

If you have good credit, I would just threaten to cancel the card and get another one. I use Amex as my main card and there have been a couple instances over the years where I messed up and the payment was a day late. I've called them, and told them I will not be paying any late fee, and it was never a problem. There are so many credit card options these days, they are desperate to keep people it seems. We do always pay the cards in full each month though.