Mark's Notebook

When is my credit card bill due?

Washington Post

by Don Oldenburg, Consumer Columnist

After the wildly popular column about a Verizon double-billing glitch, among the dozens of phone-bill-focused folks who wrote in was Elliot Greene of Silver Spring, who offered this alert to readers when paying their phone bills: "Several times Verizon has charged me a late fee when the due date for my bill fell on a Sunday and my payment was received on Monday," he says.

Basic business standard is to accept as "on time" payments received the next business day following a weekend due date. Of course, lots of screwy things have been occurring with late fees and not just in the telephone industry (watch your credit cards!).

Greene says when he called to complain, Verizon "promptly agreed to refund the charge." But he doesn't like the implication that Verizon waits for the customer to correct the problem "and Verizon gets to pocket the fees if the customer doesn't do so." Moral: Pay bills on time -- and check 'em even when you do.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100159_
2.html

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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009