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Originally Posted by
Bruno
If you had the money, it would have been better to pay it immediately. Anything you need to sign up for / deal with other people on a continued basis only complicates things.
While I understand your comment here, business school teaches us that borrowing money for free is always the better deal. That money can then be used to earn interest in another account until its needed, which makes the item "cheaper" in the long run.
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That was your first mistake. If something seems odd, you check first. Banks and credit agencies don't like being paid too early, because that money is not supposed to come in yet, and it requires human interaction to make it go somewhere. Too early is as much a nuisance as too late. And if something seems wrong, it's always better to check than to assume.
I'll admit this was a bit of a mistake on my part, but my USAA credit card always shows a $0 minimum payment, rather odd, yes, but because of this I wasn't too concerned with the $0 minimum payment listed on the account.
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mistake number 2. If you get formal papers, you check it with the sender before ignoring it. As with unscheduled payments, banks and credit unions don't like it if people ignore letters.
I believe it was an automated "your statement is available" e-mail... I always sign up for paperless if the option is given.
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So you ignore the first couple of mails as well?
You should have known by now that something was amiss, no?
Ignoring people doesn't make them or the problem go away.
Not mails.. calls. I do not answer the phone if I don't recognize the phone number, and if they don't leave a message on my voicemail then I continue to ignore the number. In this case they were persistent enough that I put the number into Google to see who it was, and saw GE Money so I picked up next time.
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Yes, paying early is as bad as paying late.
Those finance systems know when to expect a certain amount. all money that is outside of the window or in a different amount causes problems.
If you pay bills and pay 1 cent too much, you are causing significant problems and paperwork
Maybe it works different where you live, but I always pay more than the minimum payment. On any interest bearing account (credit card) I pay the full amount every month. On my home loan I usually pay an extra $100 or so on each statement. On the mattress account I have to pay just under $80/month to be paid in full at the end of 6 months (the end of the interest deferment period), so the $15 minimum payment is wholly inadequate. I've never once had a bank or lender question me for paying "too much".
