Credit Card late payment charge.......agggghhhh

[BridgetJonesPants]

I always pay my credit card balance in full every month to avoid interest. Unfortunatelty this month I simply forgot and my payment was a day late (I paid it in full the following day via on line faster payment).

However, I've been hit with a £12 late payment charge and will need to pay interest which will probably be around £7 or £8 if I don't use my card again this month. Sods law of course, I was planning too book holiday flights this month using my card coming to around £2.5k (flights for five people). However, I think I would get charged interest on this as well - but no idea how much extra that will cost me. (Of course, I could pay the flights using my debit card, but prefer to have the extra security the credit card gives me plus I gain reward points for using my card).

I'm really cross with myself for being so stupid. Normally I make my payment at least a few days in advance, but for some stupid reason, it completely went out of my mind this month and bottom line is, although I can afford to pay the charges, I would prefer not to .

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone elase has found themselves in a similar position & phoned credit card (MBNA) & managed to get their late payment charge & interest waived as a goodwill gesture? If so, any hints on what I should be saying, other than the obvious, eg, it's completely my fault?

Thanks in advance for any help.

You won't pay interest on your new spend unless you are late paying that.

I had the same thing with first direct

I only owed £8.34 because I had forgotten my debit card so stuck a small amount on the credit card

I rang them up -ever so sorry, totally my fault, I normally pay, still totally my fault -but I would really appreciate it if you could waive the fee, pretty please

they let me off the late payment but not the interest

Yup, I'd be tempted to phone up to confirm what Lonecat has already told you and use that as a pretext to see if they will waive the charges. It won't affect any spend this month, though.

Is there a reason why you don't just have the card set up to be paid in full by direct debit? You realise you can also pay it as you go along ... I normally pay mine off once a week or so.

You won't have interest charged on the flights until next month or so. It's normally 56 days (?) on purchases before interest is charged.

Mbna refunded me late payment last time as I'd already paid in full but misses date..

Never had a refund from MBNA I'm afraid.

Like you Bridgetjonespants, I got stung with a late payment fee of £12 a few months back. . Whilst the credit card company say pay by a certain date it actually means that THEY receive the payment by that date so effectively YOU are paying the money several days earlier to ensure they get the payment by that date .

Sorry if it's grandmothers and sucking eggs, but it IS annoying when you have a brilliant record of always paying in full.

I have a tesco credit card. A few months ago i had the same situation. They charged me but i called them and emphasised that i always pay in full. I have an excellent payment history. I was very unhappy to be charged for such a small error when clearly it's not a regular thing etc and they did waive the fee. Then i set my account up to pay in full each month by direct debit so it doesn't happen again. They dont really benefit and i get lots of Tesco points!

Why would you be charged interest on the flights? I thought you only got charged interest on what was spent last month and cash withdrawals. Might be best to phone and check.

It happened to me once - a family member died so I was up in the air and forgot, so called and pled my case but to no avail. I now have my cc bill paid in full by direct debit every month, so I no longer get stung with charges if I make a mistake.

If you always pay in full, you can just set up an automatic payment every month with the card company to save hassle.

I had this today, payment due to the 27th Nov, my payment hit on the 28th, £12 charge. I rang them up and as the first payment ever missed they waived the charge. Agree with whats said before, as long as balance is cleared I think no further interest applied.

We've got a Tesco credit card & put spends on there throughout the month, transfer the actual money from current to savings & then when the bill comes in, we clear it in full. One month i realised we hadn't had a statement for a while & when we looked online the payment should have been paid 5 days previous!! We rang them up & explained we hadn't had a statement through in the post & because it had never happened before, had always cleared balances they refunded us all money that had been charged because of 'late payment'. Was very pleased considering!!!

P.s You won't pay interest unless you don't clear the balance on the statement that has the holiday payments on

mine is set up so the full balance is paid automatically by direct debit so no chance of a late payment fee

We have also had this with Tesco and they refunded it.

I don't have a direct debit but, luckily, do have an organised DH!

Ring them up, apologise and grovel, they may well reverse the late payment fee as its the first time
The interest only applies for the the amount of the last bill for the days it wasnt paid. New spending won't incur interest

I have a DD set up to pay the minimum on the payment date to make sure I don't miss it.

Tesco charged me £12 for paying a day early as they said payment had to be paid on or after a certain date! when I rang up they did refund it but suggested a DD for the minimum payment so if i wanted to pay the full amount off i could pay it as extra but the minimum at least would be paid, avoiding any charges.
If you ring up and state your case, they may refund the fee as a goodwill gesture. Especially if you mention perhaps switching to a credit card that is interest free and much more flexible (bit of a risk though, in case they say go on then. Then again, it only takes a couple of weeks to set up a new one and have all the paperwork completed so could be worth considering!)