Late Fee’s For Paying Bills Too Early? Beware!

I have to get this off my chest. I'm the type of person who doesn't like to think about bill paying everyday. I pay bills twice a month, and those bills get paid according to their due date. Anything that's due before the 15th of the month, I pay by the 2nd, anything due after I pay by the 16th. I thought that was a pretty good way to make sure everything is taken care of.

Every now and then, I'll take some of my smaller payments that aren't due until the end of the month and pay them right away, just to make sure I have enough for everything. Until now..that is.

As I was paying one of my bills, I noticed that there have been late fee's added to my account for the past two months. I thought to myself..."Kelly...How did this happen?!" Well...IT DIDN'T!

After doing some checking, I notice that I didn't have any late payments. I was on time...early in fact, by two weeks!  I called the company, and they told me the reason I was charged the "late fees', is because I paid the bill too early.

I thought this nice gentleman was going to offer to fix it....no.  He just sat there like it was okay that they did this. Then he explained that since I paid it early, the company just looked at it like I was paying extra.  So then my $30 payment was wiped out by a $35 late fee.  Believe it or not....I WAS pointing out how this doesn't work for me.

Not a problem..UNLESS...you don't fix this. I paid $30 early, and was charge a $35.00 late fee because it was too early.

It took my five minutes to state my case..and reluctantly, he finally waived the fee's. It lowered my bill by $100!

Now I'm busy checking to see what other companies have been doing the same thing! I encourage you. Don't just pay your bills. Look at them closely! If you're paying on time, make sure it's not too early!

Thanks for letting me rant!

LESSON: DON'T PAY YOUR BILLS EARLY.  (Seriously? That's stupid).