Citi Credit Card - was my payment 30 days late or not?

[PingFor18]

Due to some unfortunate personal life situations, I was late on my Citi credit card payment for December. When I logged into my Citi app today to pay the card before the 30 day ceiling was hit, I was met with big, red, bold text - "PAYMENT 30 DAYS LATE" (for those who have Citi, you know they have a sort of "counter" in the app when a payment is late.

When I saw this I froze. I was stunned. Without thinking, clicking anything, or reading anything further - I immediately paid the past due amount (which I was logging in to do anyway) and it immediately cleared the message.

Due Date: December 16, 2024

Date Paid: January 14, 2025.

By my count, this is 29 calendar days. Payment was made well before midnight ET (it was made at 6 PM ET to be exact) - I just can't fathom any scenario in which this could be considered 30 days late. I made the payment on the 29th day, before the midnight cutoff, and my Citi app is currently reflecting the payment date as Jan. 14 (the 29th day).

Was the "30 days late" message some kind of glitch in the app? Maybe jumping the gun before midnight? I did in-app chat support (which honestly, wasn't super reassuring) but the rep told me that it would not go down as 30 days late. Obviously I'm playing the waiting game here before to see what gets reported to the bureaus, but should I be in the clear here based on everything you all know?

[GZG]

that's what the math says for me here as well 

unless there's terms that dictate how early you need to get the payment in, in order for it to count for that day, that differs for late payments compared to traditional normal payments, I can't imagine this would be reported as 30 days late

[pizzadude]

Did you make the payment before or after the next statement cut ?  In my experience, some creditors take liberties with the "30 days" window and might report you late if you didn't make before the next statement.

[Patient957]

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@pizzadude wrote:

Did you make the payment before or after the next statement cut ?  In my experience, some creditors take liberties with the "30 days" window and might report you late if you didn't make before the next statement.

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If you don't make the payment by the next statement date, you would be late, but only like 6-7 days late, not 30 days.  If you don't pay by the 2nd next statement date, then you'd already be almost 34-35 days late.

The 30 days late date should generally fall about 20 days or so after the next statement.  

Eg.:

Statement 1/9

Due 2/3

Next Statement 2/9 (6 days late)

30 days late 3/5

2nd Next Statement 3/9 (34 days late)

So there's really no liberties to be taken.  

[SRT4kid93]

would I have considered your payment late if it was up to me? No

but you cut it razor thin, it's possible there was some sort of mix up. I would just call them and plead your case. If it's your first missed payment ever on that account. Some companies will give you a do over and not report that payment as late. Especially if you have been a good customer. But you usually only get this once, and it doesn't always happen. 

there's really only 2 scenarios I could think of 

1) some companies require you to get the payment in by end of business day for it to count. Therefore, by submitting your payment at 6 pm, you would be well past business closing for that day. Therefore not meeting their terms. when looking up citis terms, it clearly said their cutoff is midnight. So this explanation doesn't seem plausible. 

2) almost every company won't reflect your payment  until the next business day. Even if your available credit is updated. The payment isn't posted until next day. Maybe the computer knew the payment would not post until the next day, and therefore considered it 30 days. Because that's when the payment will actually reflect.  But again, this goes against what I was able to find online regarding citi's requirements for payments. So could either be a glitch by the computer?