Capital One: Statement Shenanigans & What should I do

[Anonymous]

My Background:
I'm young (18) and studying/working in Denver, I opened up a Credit Card with Capital One a few months ago because they kept pressuring me with decent offers and because I need one to build a credit history. Offer was nothing special $500 CL and a 12.99% APR.

Before that I had a FirstBank Debit Card which served me just fine, but as far as I understand it's not exactly something that'll contribute to my credit score.

I don't really need a credit card for spending (It's for building my history only) and I absolutely do not plan on not paying it off every month.

I signed up for online payments about two months ago because quite frankly I don't want to see paper going to waste, big mistake. My "statement date" is on the 21st. Usually I remember to go in and pay by then (Typically I will pay every two weeks because I will end up going over my limit otherwise), well last month I didn't (was on vacation enjoying myself). On the 28th (seven days later) I get a nice email from CapitalOne with the subject "Your Capital One statement is ready."

Fantastic, open it up and I see I have a late fee, apparently my bill was due a week ago. (I verified on the site as well, the statement date was the 28th, it wasn't a case of an email falling through) I call up customer service, take a minute to explain the situation and the guy apologizes, tells me he will reverse the charge and make sure it won't happen again.

Right now it's the 20th, I have yet to hear anything from CapitalOne, I know I have a balance on the card. Now maybe I'm alone in feeling this way, but this is just predatory. I was under the assumption that the purpose of a statement was to alert the customer of a payment and not to alert him of the payment that the company marked as being late a whole week ago.

I really do not trust CapitalOne anymore, nor do I have the patience to need to call up and get erroneous late fees reverted. I hope at least that situation had no affect on my credit history. Would filing a complaint with my state be prudent and have any affect with my consideration, e.g. is there a secret list of righteous clients? (Okay, I kid here )

Should I just leave the card alone and not spend anything on it? Get another card to replace it? Get another card to use alongside CapitalOne? Watch CapitalOne like a hawk?

Your input is highly appreciated

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

I'm puzzled, in that I don't see how missing a statement can make you late one week later.

Typically, a statement might drop on the 10th, for instance. It will list all the charges that you've made in this billing cycle (which began with the last statement date), any payments made, and any balances carried over from the previous month's statement. Any unpaid charges might be due by the 28th of that same month. If you haven't paid at least the minimum by the 28th, the next months' statement on the 10th will show that you're.

If you had paid off the previous month's balance, there shouldn't have been a late payment posted on this month.

What it does sound like is that you missed the payment due day on the 20th or so, and then when your statement posted on the 28th, it showed that missed payment. There's a big difference between the due date and the statement date. The statement date comes first, and after X number of days, depending on your card, its due date comes. Then the next statement drops, followed by its due date, and so on.

I might very well have read your post wrong --if so, I apologize. Can you pull up your most recent statement online and post back with the date of the statement and the due date that is on that statement?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I was under the assumption that the purpose of a statement was to alert the customer of a payment and not to alert him of the payment that the company marked as being late a whole week ago.

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The purpose of the statement is to list your charges and what your minimum payment amount and due date are. If you owe and you don't pay prior to that due date, when your next statement comes they will show that you now owe late fees and possibly over the limit fees.

Some credit card companies offer reminders where they e-mail you a week before your payment is due to tell you you haven't yet paid, but I don't see that option on my Cap1 page.

Basically if you wait to make a payment until the next statement cuts you're going to be late/missing a payment. That's what happens with CC statements.

It might be beneficial to you to set up a repeating reminder in your cell phone/computer that will notify you that you need to make your payment, if you haven't already.

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with the others.  The "statement date" for my credit cards is always AFTER the due date for my payment.  If I wait to pay my bill on the statement date then my payment is late.   So, to me, if that's what you waited for, the problem was with your payment strategy.  Not with Capital One.

[Anonymous]

Sorry if this sounded confusing, before I switched to online statements about a week before my payment date I would receive a statement in the mail outlining all my transactions and what I had to pay CapitalOne. After switching I received my statement a week after my payment date with an indication that I was already past due. Is it normal to not be warned of an upcoming payment at all?

[haulingthescoreup]

Maybe something got lost, and since the CSR waived the fee, maybe they saw a problem. They might have posted the statement at a weird time, not giving you enough time to pay.

Your best bet for the future is to check online and find out the date that your statement posts --not the due date, but the statement date. It's usually around the same time every month, possibly coming a few days earlier or later each time. Set a flag in Outlook, jot something on a calendar, whatever your personal reminder system is, and go online on that date and pay it then and there. Your due date is probably a couple of weeks after that, but if there's any kind of delay, you're going to get hit with a late payment.

A lot of people think that the due date precedes the statement date, but it's really the other way around. So your June statement will post, maybe on the 10th, and say that you owe $85 dollars. Somewhere on that statement it will say that payment is due by the 24th, for instance. That $85 has to be paid and cleared by that date to avoid interest and/or late payment fees. Then in July, maybe somewhere around the 10th again, your next statement comes out with whatever charges you made from June 11 to July 10, and they'll be due around July 24.

I have completely made up these dates, but that's the rhythm of the billing cycle. Some CCC's have so short a period between the statement date and the due date that it's almost impossible to get a paper check in to them in time to clear. That's why a lot of us do this online.

In fact, some of us pay all the balance several days before the statement posts, and then there's a $0 balance on the statement, and there's no worry about being late. (We mainly do this for scoring purposes, but it's nice to not have to worry about late payments.)

[Anonymous]

I know my bill is due on the 8th and always pay online two days before that.  I look at the statement online.  They do not send reminders.  They also never forget.

[Anonymous]

Yes- Cap 1 will not send reminders - but my bill pay from my CU does-

We went Online statements with them as soon as they offered it- so much less shreading in my house now.

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casinoannie97 wrote:

I know my bill is due on the 8th and always pay online two days before that.  I look at the statement online.  They do not send reminders.  They also never forget.

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[TangMeister]

Honestly, in this day and age, with internet cc account access and EFT payment options, you should not rely on credit card statements to alert you when to pay a bill. I know you're young, but you've got to take a proactive approach to this (yes, proactive seems to be a theme with me) and:

Log on to the ccc's website regularly to check on your usage and limits.
Check your due date and mark it down wherever you need to, so you remember.
Set a date earlier than said due date to pay your cc each month...like 10 days prior.
Pay your bill on said "personal" due date you set for yourself.
Check to make sure the pmt posts to your account successfully, or why it didn't.

You really cannot rely on the CCCs to notify you when your payment is due via statement or othewise. Sorry to say that, but it's true. You've learned a valuable lesson on this. Hopefully, you won't get dinged with a 30 day late on your credit reports. I know I may sound a little preachy, but relying on a company that profits from you being late, to notify you when your payment is due, is not a good thing to do.

Good luck!

[smallfry]

If you have a problem paying your credit cards on time try paying a little 3 times each month online. You really cannot blame anyone especially since you have internet access. Checking your accounts daily only takes 5 minutes and will alleviate all of these problems.