I wonder how many people will be slapped with late fees

[question everything]

and finance charges for not having their bills paid on January 2nd because... there will be no postal service tomorrow.

When most of our holidays are set on either a Monday or Thursday and Friday to connect to a weekend, why did they decide on the first business day of the new year to bury Ford?

(Yes, I know, we should always pay our bills way in advance but most do not..)

I cannot think of a single instance when the post office has been closed for three days in a row.

[Totallybushed]

1. Hell,

my wife just got off the phone with Discover that was calling about a late fee for a bill, that our checkbook shows was mailed on the 18th. I think we got it straightened out, that's good, but why should we be using any of our vacation to correct the mistakes of the fat-cat banks and the incompetent Postal Service?

[screembloodymurder]

2. I think they needed another day to plan their next terrorist attack, you know, what with the holiday

and all.

[depakid]

7. Holding onto checks is fairly common practice

Corporations make millions from it- and there have been numerous class action settlements over the practice. Trouble is- the settlements don't seem to deter the practice, as the risk of being caught together with the amounts that may be awarded don't outweigh the amounts the corporations get in return for their fraudulent practices.

[SoCalDem]

3. Another reason we cut up all our cards..(only one for emergencies. and we rarely use it)

Debit cards are all I use these days.. If I don;t have enough money in the bank to do that, I don't shop..and never any late fees :)

[sallyseven]

8. Kittys are beautiful. Does my heart good,.

Thank you I needed that.

[question everything]

9. The only problem with debit cards, if you check to a hotel, for example

they put a huge hold on the whole account and you may find yourself bouncing checks. I don't know the whole procedure but was warned about that several times.

These days it takes about a week to 10 days from the closing date to the day we receive the statements. All other mail arrives within a couple of days, though. And then the grace period that should be about 21 days is barely a week. Last August when we traveled for 10 days I called two of the credit cards to find out the balance and sent them payment even before we got the invoices since I knew that we would miss the due date. And we came back right before Labor Day.

The trick is to keep on top of when statements are due and if they are late, to call and to inquire.

[SoCalDem]

12. That's why we did keep one card..

Its limit is $18K, so that should cover most
holds". The only place we ever use a hotel is in Vegas, and they always comp us for room & food, so we shouldn;t even need it there :)

[physioex]

13. Correct.....

I checked into a hotel and rented a car and I was told that they would put a hold greater on the room and the car than the cost of my reservation. So it could potentially tie up funds.

[physioex]

10. That is a great strategy for people.....

Who have no discipline with their money. However for people with discipline with money, I would encourage the use of credit cards to take advantage of the cash back features they offer. It is a way we can stick it back as "Deadbeats" in the reverse industry of the credit cards.

[SoCalDem]

14. The one card we do have is a cash-back one, but we just don;t buy

that much anymore.. In fact I pay a set amonut every month (online) or all our bills and right now I have a $52 credit at two gasoline companies and a $118.00 credit with the electric company..(I always pay extra every month to get ahead on things)

[physioex]

18. Not a huge consumer here either.....

But credit cards are convenient for purchases like gasoline, groceries, car repair, online purchases, etc.....

[question everything]

21. We also take advantage of their 0% finance for a limited time

when we need to make a major purchase. And, of course, we pay it back on time or, if we need a few more months, the amount is lower.

We took advantage of a 3.99% loan for the duration of the loan and paid off our 7% home equity loan. Even if we lose the deductability, we still come ahead.

Of course, before we follow this route we make sure that there is a zero balance, and once we do take the loan - the card goes to the drawer and is not being used until the loan is paid.

This is how they catch innocent borrowers, who do not realize that if there are different purchases at different interest rates, any payments go to the lower one, first, while the more expensive sums continue to generate more and more finance charges.

[Divernan]

4. In a pinch for time, pay on line.

You may have to pay a couple of dollars service charge to do so, but it bets having the credit card companies jump your intererst rates to 29% or higher because you were late with a payment.

[sallyseven]

5. My checks are direct deposited

on the 31 of the month. I hope I don't get fined.

[Burried News]

6. Late two months ago on a Home Depot Credit Card

They received payment 2 days late (over a weekend) on a bill balance of $34.
The late fee was $30. Home Depot Credit cards are now handled by Citigroup.

Recent article
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=11663105DC43CF30&p_docnum=1

FREEBIES GALORE, UNTIL YOU MESS UP
INSTITUTIONS ARE RELYING ON PENALTY FEES FOR INCOME
BINYAMIN APPELBAUM, [e-mail]

Financial services have never seemed less expensive. Free checking accounts, credit cards with no annual fees, loans with no closing costs. Bank of America Corp. is even offering some customers free stock trades.

How are the banks making money? In part by charging increased penalties for every mistake.
The average penalty for bouncing a check hit a new high of $27.40 in Bankrate.com's fall 2006 survey. Miss a credit card payment? That cost customers an average of $33.64 in 2005, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The penalties will keep growing in 2007, analysts say, making this the one trend in banking every customer should be aware of.

Banks started the shift from user fees to penalties to attract more customers and make more money. In 1990, for example, the credit card industry derived two-thirds of fee revenue from annual fees, and one-third from penalties. By 2004, the ratios had more than reversed, the GAO found. The change was good for the industry: Americans used cards more often and profits went up.

[physioex]

16. I hope everyone here....

Watches the show "Frontline" on PBS were they did the history of the credit card. It is a definite must see for everyone here at DU.

[question everything]

19. Wow! I am glad that I caught on to Home Depot

We have their credit card and took advantage of an interest free for six months offer last summer when we purchased a major item. Still, each month we sent 1/6 of the payment. On each statement it showed that that "contract" was going to expire on 12/27.06. Last November we purchased a few more items and the new statement indicated that the date due for the whole statement was 1/1/07.

I have no doubt in my mind that had we followed this later date - in large font - for payment, instead of the small print of 12/27, we would have been charged interest for the few extra days and, perhaps, a late fee.

[Burried News]

23. You are exactly right.

I purchased $2000 worth of lumber that had six month interest free yadayada. Then I made the $34 purchase. When I looked at the stub I still had you couldn't catch what they were doing. But then I looked at the next stub and just what you say ... the smaller font date was the key date. That's when I knew it was a scam ... and then when I saw they had recently moved everything over to citibank I was sure of it.

Anyway I had enough money to pay off the whole thing AND so they sent me another 10% off solicitation to see if they could hook me again... meanwhile if I had one of citibank's or Capital 1 Visa's (I don't) the interest on any debt there would have escalated because of a late payment to home depot.

[aikoaiko]

11. online epay --- works like a charm.

[seaglass]

17. It does. My one and only cc is with the same bank I have my

checking and savings with so all I have to do is a transfer.

[havocmom]

26. Bank of America can screw that up

and do on a regular basis for Havocdad. As a Fed employee, he received a B of A Visa (which he and other workers were not even informed was coming) a couple years ago. The card is to the worker and on the worker's credit report, NOT the government's, but the government had them issued as a condition of continued employment. Some crap about streamlining their accounting for when employees have to travel for work.

Thing is, some idiots used the card for other things and ran up bills, which of course helped B of A. The government has workers send in the charge slips for work related expenses and reimburses, but not always in a timely manner. Again, B of A stands to gain if the worker bees are on a tight budget and can't make the payment out of pocket before the reimbursement comes to them.

And the workers were furious when the cards arrived, as they had not been informed they were even going to this method for paying travel expenses. The cards came with ridiculously high limits. Imagine if you didn't know a card was even issued and it got lost! You wouldn't even know until the bills started showing up. Workers were really pissed. B of A and some bush appointee finally lowered the credit limit on most of them.

And, since the cards are actually issued to the workers with no responsibility from the feds to back their use, they count against the workers credit score. The more cards one has, the more excuses ANY other lenders have to jack up the interest rates they charge you. They all get a chance to make more $$

My pet tin foil theory: Goes back to Diebold. Diebold delivered the vote. They needed to be paid off. The banking industry was required to buy all new machines to process checks a few years back. Instead of sending the checks to a fed clearing house, they ALL had to have new imaging machines. Photos of the checks were sent back electronically. No more float time for ANYONE. Once your payee puts the check in his/her bank, YOUR account debited by end of THAT business day.

Diebold makes a lot of the machines banks use. Banks had to buy new machines, the companies making those machines (and many of the electronic voting systems that assured bushco in 2000 and 2004) made a fortune. But the banks/financial institutions needed their payoff too... thus all the fast tracking of transactions to get the money from YOUR account fast and hopefully trip a lot of folks (barely hanging on) into pitfalls of OD charges and other little fee traps.

But the companies you pay your bills too can, and do, leave checks sitting around before they get them processed, in hopes Joe Consumer will just put up with the late fees and not fight about it.

It is a circle of cronies fleecing the already screwed working class.

B of A can manage to screw up on-line payments too. We have gone round and round with them over it when ever Havocdad has to use that damned card the fed agency insists their workers use if they want travel expenses reimbursed.

[question everything]

34. No more float days for us, the customers

but try depositing a check from someone else and you cannot use these funds for - I don't know - five business days, or so.

This is really shitty what they did. I know that many employers provide employees with credit cards to stream line operations... some of us had to order office supplies. But the invoices came to the employers.

[Bitwit1234]

15. It was said that

after the bank Holiday in the 1930's the federal government passed a law that banks could not be closed more than TWO days in a row. Since January 2 would make it three days in a row they have to stay open on Tuesday January 2 or be in violation of federal law.

[Left Is Write]

20. There's no postal service tomorrow? I did not know. What about banks?

I have an online payment scheduled for tomorrow. I scheduled it a week or so ago, and the bank website didn't indicate it was a holiday.

[question everything]

22. Federal offices are closed

I don't know about state and local ones.

If there is nothing on their website this may mean that it will be open.

[havocmom]

27. Banks will have to be opened Tuesday. Fed law says they cannot be closed 4 days in a row

Part of the laws that came about to protect depositors after the bank closures and failures of the Depression. Banks in trouble just shut their doors and left depositors high and dry. They can't have their doors closed for four consecutive days since then.

And, of course, some of them bitch about it.

[Left Is Write]

29. Not even if one of those days is a Sunday when they wouldn't be open anyway?

I know I sound woefully ignorant, but I'm curious.

Saturday and Sunday don't count as business days - anything done Saturday and Sunday gets dated the next business day. Do the four consecutive days include Sunday?

My payment is still scheduled to go through tomorrow, so I'm assuming it will be a regular bank business day.

[havocmom]

31. Four consecutive days they can't do, weekends count. Not 4 business days, 4 days period is no-no

They can only have a three day weekend, never more than than.

[Left Is Write]

32. Okay, cool, Thanks!

[Sherman A1]

24. I have found that

if there is a screw up once in a great while, you can usually just call and they will waive the fee. In this case with no mail delivery, I would think that there would not be a problem. The mail service is clearly beyond your control, although you might have gotten the check in the mail sooner. I know that I missed a payment last year, when I was down with the flu. I called and the fee was credited back to the account. They CC companies don't want to lose you as a customer any more than you want to pay a fee for something that was really beyond your control. CC's are really a dime a dozen, if they insist on you paying a late fee, simply close the account and go somewhere else.

[question everything]

35. Yes, always a good idea to call the CC. Especially if you have been

a good customer. I had one case last spring when Memorial Day Weekend got my check late. I did not even realize that I missed the due date... it was not on my stub only on the one that I mailed. So I called and I got the late fee and finance charge removed. In cases like that, I always get the name of the rep with whom I speak.

[GreenTea]

25. People's unemployment checks will be delayed because of that bumble-headed republican

Bush (and Ford).

[Warpy]

28. It helps Stupid stall his "decision" to send more troops to be

cut to pieces in his botched war.

It's supposed to make him look like he's thinking it over.

[earlybelle]

30. What about people who expect electronic delivery of retirement checks on the first of the month?

Will that be delayed until Jan3? Banks are going to make out with over-draft charges because money expected to be in accounts on the 2nd, will not be.

[question everything]

36. I would think that electronic delivery should be on time

This, after all, is the whole idea of electronic delivery - independence of the mail. Unless your check comes from the federal government which was closed today.

Check you account online, if you can and if the sum is not there, call your bank, try to talk to a supervisor.

[havocmom]

37. My pay check is direct deposit and they send the payroll notices to pay

to their bank on Friday. It is past closing time and the transfer of funds has not yet happened. Seems I won't get paid until the third instead of today. The bank has had the $$ since noon Friday.
:grr:

Wondering if Federal workers with direct deposit are having the same problem. People grumble about the fed workers getting today off for Ford's day of mourning, but I am wondering if there isn't a bit of money juggling going on with the banks too. Havocdad's pay is not in his account either.

[barb162]

33. My thoughts also today when I heard this news

[kath]

38. Having no mail service for three consecutive days is total bullshit.

I'm not sure why we have to have a national day of mourning for someone who was Pres more than 30 years ago (and never elected, at that), but even so, tha day should have been set as Fri or Sat or even tomorrow.