@Anonymous wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Look for any specifics how they process payments. Perhaps it's "payment must POST by the due date" or similar language. I've sent payments late in the day (on a business day) and I no longer had the option to submit it for that day, despite looking at the calendar and clearly seeing I wasn't hallucinating. They'll try anything to make more money off of you.
Some creditors don't accept payments on Sundays. Some creditors don't let you date a payment for weekends, period. What you likely received was a COURTESY, not a correction. Some of what is done in the name of good PR is not because the company was not adhering to their processes, but simply because they were called out on it.
I have never heard of a "revised statement" being cut, as it would be unethical to pretend that this didn't happen. You received a charge on this past statement, and you'll see the credit on the next one. That's their way of reconciling. They cancel each other out only when YOU add them together, but they don't disappear. Whatever the circumstances that led to this, we can fully expect a repeat of the same would lead to another late fee. There is a reason why you may have one due date printed on your bill, but say you enabled Auto Pay (I'm not saying you have to) you would notice that the Auto Pay debit date is often up to a WEEK before your actual due date.
I don't think any amount of arguing is going to change how Citi honors payments submitted ON the due date. It's electronic and no one noticed until a human called another human on it. There's nothing they can do to change billing for your account only, unfortunately, and changing it for everyone would dry up an apparently very lucrative source of revenue. You can pay on the same day and request a new one a few days out, going forward, if it's a matter of lining up with other credits/debits in your personal accounts, but just like you won't see anyone "negotiate their contract" with Citi, they are very much take-it-or-leave-it in this respect, as well.
@Anonymous wrote:So I've had my Citi account for years, never late, never paid a penny of interest, etc. I usually pay it a day or two before the due date, but in July I paid it on the due date, 7/24. The previous statement balance was ~$300 and the current balance was ~$1300. I paid off the current balance (no pending charges) to take the account down to a $0 [reported] balance. When the statement cut a few days later I noticed a $29 late fee along with a dollar and change interest. I contacted CS, showed them the time-stamped email that proved I didn't pay late and they immediately credited me back the $29 and dollar whatever interest.
Maybe it's just semantics and I'm griping over something not major here, but I requested a revised July statement not showing those issues and they basically say they can't do that. It's not about the money obviously, as I already got that back... it's about me not having any blemishes at all on my account, even if it's just internal Citi stuff. As of now it still looks like I was late, simply that the fees were waived. But, I wasn't late, which they agree to, so I shouldn't have a statement (in writing) that still suggests I was late. Any suggestions here? Should I write the EO? They've been helpful/responsive to me in the past. Just forget about it? As an aside, I wanted the account to report $0 that month and it ended up being reported at ~$1300 prior to the payment being included... just something to further irritate me a tad
How are they looking to make more money off of you if you have 25 days to pay.
Opting to pay on a due date is a choice, not some evil lender trickery.
Picking an unreasonable, arbitrary cutoff time for same-day crediting is a choice, too.
25 days is the grace as it should be. Legally, they can't penalize you for being late within the grace period, but the grace period is stated in days, not hours. It is well known that every month, there will be a significant number of people paying on exactly the due date. It's like the sun rising, it's to be expected.
What if the water company's office stayed open 9-5 every day, but only credited payments same-day until 3 PM, and charged customers a late fee for bringing their money from 3 PM - 5 PM? That would be a solidly arbitrary, senseless choice to penalize customers and generate punitive revenue. In a world of instant payments, the US is terribly behind in adopting new payment methods. Ever think of why you can ONLY make payments on credit products with things that either take an indeterminate time in the US mail, or take days to post? I'm sure OP knows.
I'm littered with cards, and not a single one takes indeterminate period of time to post when paid via app or website.
I dont agonize whether payment is on time at 4:59 pm but late at 5:00 pm because I pay early to allow ample time should something go wrong.
Lenders have the choice on when the cut off is, just like we have a choice of 25 days to pay it.
BBS, what do your last few statements have as payment due date, vs the next statement print date that was issued?
What Citi card do you have? Mine is the AA MileUp, PC'd a few years ago from AA $95 AF card.
I understand this is so frustrating for you. I do see your point from principal value and why this is important. But as others suggested, you must have missed the 5 pm EST cut off time. Citi is a national CC lender and its system must have an internal clock that stamps every transactions occurring on each accounts it services. Just like many, if not most, lenders, it follows Eastern Standard Time on its processing of
payments. We live in multiple time zones. Setting a time zone and cut off time for its practices and procedures for a bank is not throwing an arbitrary number. I disagree with posts referencing 5pm cut off is somehow an elusive practice. Most businesses are open from 9 to 5. That's standard practice that public expect from business world and not at all arbitrary. Whether it is EST, PST or MST it's the lender's procedural prerogative and we as borrowers have no choice how they set it. As a 30 plus years litigation paralegal, I have seen many trials with banks, some mega banks. There are so many fine prints in their agreements, public could never possibly read all those. Some are grossly unfair but as individual borrowers, we have no say in setting or revising their procedures.
@Remedios wrote:@Anonymous , if you paid after 5 pm EST, that could be why.
They cover it under same day payments section 🤷♀️
So, does this mean (in this case where due date and closing date are the same), and assuming the payment was after 5pm ET, the late fee would appear on the statement, but would then be removed on the following one? Stating cutoff time is midnight, and closing date 5pm seems to conflict!
P.S. @Remedios No signature update?
@Anonymous wrote:
@Remedios wrote:@Anonymous , if you paid after 5 pm EST, that could be why.
They cover it under same day payments section 🤷♀️
So, does this mean (in this case where due date and closing date are the same), and assuming the payment was after 5pm ET, the late fee would appear on the statement, but would then be removed on the following one? Stating cutoff time is midnight, and closing date 5pm seems to conflict!
P.S. @Remedios No signature update?
I don't see a conflict. Payments are processed with the calendar day, as of the Eastern time zone. Exception is on the statement cut date, 5pm Eastern is the closing time for the Statement. A payment made after 5pm would still have that same calendar day assignment, on the following statement.
Call me skeptical that OP's Payment Due Date and Statement Closing Date are the same. Until that is proven out with screen images, it's speculation.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Remedios wrote:@Anonymous , if you paid after 5 pm EST, that could be why.
They cover it under same day payments section 🤷♀️
So, does this mean (in this case where due date and closing date are the same), and assuming the payment was after 5pm ET, the late fee would appear on the statement, but would then be removed on the following one? Stating cutoff time is midnight, and closing date 5pm seems to conflict!
P.S. @Remedios No signature update?
I just dont see how due date and closing date can be the same because of the batch processing.
It's updated now with a sad true story.
@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Look for any specifics how they process payments. Perhaps it's "payment must POST by the due date" or similar language. I've sent payments late in the day (on a business day) and I no longer had the option to submit it for that day, despite looking at the calendar and clearly seeing I wasn't hallucinating. They'll try anything to make more money off of you.
Some creditors don't accept payments on Sundays. Some creditors don't let you date a payment for weekends, period. What you likely received was a COURTESY, not a correction. Some of what is done in the name of good PR is not because the company was not adhering to their processes, but simply because they were called out on it.
I have never heard of a "revised statement" being cut, as it would be unethical to pretend that this didn't happen. You received a charge on this past statement, and you'll see the credit on the next one. That's their way of reconciling. They cancel each other out only when YOU add them together, but they don't disappear. Whatever the circumstances that led to this, we can fully expect a repeat of the same would lead to another late fee. There is a reason why you may have one due date printed on your bill, but say you enabled Auto Pay (I'm not saying you have to) you would notice that the Auto Pay debit date is often up to a WEEK before your actual due date.
I don't think any amount of arguing is going to change how Citi honors payments submitted ON the due date. It's electronic and no one noticed until a human called another human on it. There's nothing they can do to change billing for your account only, unfortunately, and changing it for everyone would dry up an apparently very lucrative source of revenue. You can pay on the same day and request a new one a few days out, going forward, if it's a matter of lining up with other credits/debits in your personal accounts, but just like you won't see anyone "negotiate their contract" with Citi, they are very much take-it-or-leave-it in this respect, as well.
@Anonymous wrote:So I've had my Citi account for years, never late, never paid a penny of interest, etc. I usually pay it a day or two before the due date, but in July I paid it on the due date, 7/24. The previous statement balance was ~$300 and the current balance was ~$1300. I paid off the current balance (no pending charges) to take the account down to a $0 [reported] balance. When the statement cut a few days later I noticed a $29 late fee along with a dollar and change interest. I contacted CS, showed them the time-stamped email that proved I didn't pay late and they immediately credited me back the $29 and dollar whatever interest.
Maybe it's just semantics and I'm griping over something not major here, but I requested a revised July statement not showing those issues and they basically say they can't do that. It's not about the money obviously, as I already got that back... it's about me not having any blemishes at all on my account, even if it's just internal Citi stuff. As of now it still looks like I was late, simply that the fees were waived. But, I wasn't late, which they agree to, so I shouldn't have a statement (in writing) that still suggests I was late. Any suggestions here? Should I write the EO? They've been helpful/responsive to me in the past. Just forget about it? As an aside, I wanted the account to report $0 that month and it ended up being reported at ~$1300 prior to the payment being included... just something to further irritate me a tad
How are they looking to make more money off of you if you have 25 days to pay.
Opting to pay on a due date is a choice, not some evil lender trickery.
Picking an unreasonable, arbitrary cutoff time for same-day crediting is a choice, too.
25 days is the grace as it should be. Legally, they can't penalize you for being late within the grace period, but the grace period is stated in days, not hours. It is well known that every month, there will be a significant number of people paying on exactly the due date. It's like the sun rising, it's to be expected.
What if the water company's office stayed open 9-5 every day, but only credited payments same-day until 3 PM, and charged customers a late fee for bringing their money from 3 PM - 5 PM? That would be a solidly arbitrary, senseless choice to penalize customers and generate punitive revenue. In a world of instant payments, the US is terribly behind in adopting new payment methods. Ever think of why you can ONLY make payments on credit products with things that either take an indeterminate time in the US mail, or take days to post? I'm sure OP knows.
I'm littered with cards, and not a single one takes indeterminate period of time to post when paid via app or website.
I dont agonize whether payment is on time at 4:59 pm but late at 5:00 pm because I pay early to allow ample time should something go wrong.
Lenders have the choice on when the cut off is, just like we have a choice of 25 days to pay it.
If such a thing is an issue to even some of a creditor's borrowers, it's a valid issue nonetheless. It's a "problem" that lenders must be well aware of, but have crunched the numbers and found that the additional revenue skimming from these "paid when due, but still technically late" payments amounts to more than they'd stand to save in customer service staffing if they gave us one less thing to call in about.
Why must credit products charge a late fee when paying on the due date, yet installment products define their grace periods as the periods AFTER the due date. Mortgages come to mind. No late fee until payment is 15 days AFTER THE DUE DATE. It's an arbitrary choice for revenue generation. Some card issuers credit my payments same-day up to 11:59 PM ET. Placing the cutoff at 5 PM suggests someone at Citi is physically driving your payment to another depository during banker's hours. PLEASE.
