I was not informed payments were late

Anonymous · ‎03-02-2013

I had over $5000 of debt towards my Macys Visa card. I had trouble making payments, so they put me on a special plan. If I did not miss or make late payments I would not get any interest. I have been making $87 payments every month for years now. I am under $1000 and have recently been receiving calls from them claiming my payments are either late, or my payments are not being received. I have not changed the way I have been making these payments in 2 years. I called my bank and they said that for two years the payments I sent were being cashed, I have not missed a payment, but the payments were late sometimes. I was not aware of this, and Macys Visa never informed me. I was using Bill Pay thru Wellsfargo, and did not understand that payments could be late because of weekends and holidays. Is it legal, after 2 years, for Macys Visa to go after me for late payments?

navigatethis12 · ‎03-02-2013

Im not sure that they have to inform you when you make a late payment, they just have to inform you of what could happen if you are late and exactly when you would be considered late. Any lender can "come after" you even 1000 years from now and ask you to pay a debt you had. They just can't sue after a certain period of time. I don't believe they are violating any laws by talking to you about late payments during the past two years.

LS2982 · ‎03-02-2013

That really sucks. It sounds like you were making the payments very close to the due date. Personally using a bill pay service id be at least a full week early with a payment just because of this situation.

EQ FICO 548 3/3/16

Repo-ed · ‎03-02-2013

Sounds like you need to pay them earlier. Not the fault of the bill-pay-service.

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FinStar · ‎03-02-2013

@Anonymous wrote:
I had over $5000 of debt towards my Macys Visa card. I had trouble making payments, so they put me on a special plan. If I did not miss or make late payments I would not get any interest. I have been making $87 payments every month for years now. I am under $1000 and have recently been receiving calls from them claiming my payments are either late, or my payments are not being received. I have not changed the way I have been making these payments in 2 years. I called my bank and they said that for two years the payments I sent were being cashed, I have not missed a payment, but the payments were late sometimes. I was not aware of this, and Macys Visa never informed me. I was using Bill Pay thru Wellsfargo, and did not understand that payments could be late because of weekends and holidays. Is it legal, after 2 years, for Macys Visa to go after me for late payments?

OP: It appears that you didn't familiarize yourself with the Bill Pay service agreement to understand when payments are allocated/presented from your bank to the payee. Additionally, any payees set up through your Bill Pay service have specific remittance conditions (i.e. 1 BD, 2 BD, 5 BD, etc.) This is not the fault of the lender, therefore it is not illegal. Most Bill Pay services offered by the majority of financial institutions clearly spell out their terms and conditions when using this service.

For the most part, weekends and holidays do not count as business days and some Bill Pay services remit funds electronically which are usually paid within 1 BD. So, if you have any recurring payments sent on the due date and falls on a weekend/holiday, guess what - your payment will not be on time, as it will be delivered on the next BD. From what is known about Macy's Visa (or Macy's AMEX) payments when using some Bill Pay services, payments are usually generated by mail and usually have a 5 BDs delivery window. This is usually the opposite for the Macy's retail store account.

So, the responsibility really falls on the account holder to ensure the payments were received on time (this is part of your agreement with the lender), especially when a payment plan was set up to avoid any interest charges.

Wolf3 · ‎03-02-2013

Do you look at the statements every month? Did the statements show them as late?

What are they asking for?

adavis425 · ‎03-02-2013

@FinStar wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I had over $5000 of debt towards my Macys Visa card. I had trouble making payments, so they put me on a special plan. If I did not miss or make late payments I would not get any interest. I have been making $87 payments every month for years now. I am under $1000 and have recently been receiving calls from them claiming my payments are either late, or my payments are not being received. I have not changed the way I have been making these payments in 2 years. I called my bank and they said that for two years the payments I sent were being cashed, I have not missed a payment, but the payments were late sometimes. I was not aware of this, and Macys Visa never informed me. I was using Bill Pay thru Wellsfargo, and did not understand that payments could be late because of weekends and holidays. Is it legal, after 2 years, for Macys Visa to go after me for late payments?
OP: It appears that you didn't familiarize yourself with the Bill Pay service agreement to understand when payments are allocated/presented from your bank to the payee. Additionally, any payees set up through your Bill Pay service have specific remittance conditions (i.e. 1 BD, 2 BD, 5 BD, etc.) This is not the fault of the lender, therefore it is not illegal. Most Bill Pay services offered by the majority of financial institutions clearly spell out their terms and conditions when using this service.

For the most part, weekends and holidays do not count as business days and some Bill Pay services remit funds electronically which are usually paid within 1 BD. So, if you have any recurring payments sent on the due date and falls on a weekend/holiday, guess what - your payment will not be on time, as it will be delivered on the next BD. From what is known about Macy's Visa (or Macy's AMEX) payments when using some Bill Pay services, payments are usually generated by mail and usually have a 5 BDs delivery window. This is usually the opposite for the Macy's retail store account.

So, the responsibility really falls on the account holder to ensure the payments were received on time (this is part of your agreement with the lender), especially when a payment plan was set up to avoid any interest charges.

I use bill pay for ALL of my cc payments. These recurring payments are adjusted (automatically by the bank) for weekends and holidays and I have NEVER had a late or missed payment. It sounds as if the OP is not allowing enough time for the payment to reach the creditor on time. As others have suggested, move your date up. As FinStar wrote, make sure you know how long it takes for payment to reach each destination .

Anonymous · ‎03-02-2013

Thanks for your reply. Thats the thing about it. They didn't start giving me interest until now. I would have seen that on a statement 2 years ago and changed my payment method.

Creditaddict · ‎03-02-2013

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for your reply. Thats the thing about it. They didn't start giving me interest until now. I would have seen that on a statement 2 years ago and changed my payment method.

Start pulling up your statements online and go back through and see how many times it was late and if you fell short on a payment covering the minimum payments... you might just have been lucky (in one sense) that the new credit law doesn't allow them to change your APR for being late or over credit line unless it happens 2... that might not even be case in programs but find out what months and what happened, then you will be informed on your end when you go begging to Macy's to let you stay on the program and get this paid off!

The good news is if you are under a grand now you can get this done in like 12 months if you kick the payment up to $100 even at the fab. 24.5% interest rate (haha)

Anonymous · ‎03-03-2013

Thanks for all your help!