Can You Trust the Mail to Deliver Your Credit Card Payment?

Can you trust the USPS to deliver your credit card payment on time? This is something that you really need to think about the next time when putting first-class stamp on envelope and dropping your payment into the mailbox.

Normally, it takes three business days to send a first class letter from coast to coast. An amazing trip of over 2,000 miles from start to finish. You drop it the box, it gets picked up, routed to the post office, then to the regional office for sorting and delivery to the next regional office. If the regional office is across the country, it gets bundled up with other postage and put on a commercial flight.

The the letter is unwound in the reverse from the commercial flight, to the regional office, and then to the local post office for delivery to its final destination. A very efficient process taking about 3 business days to deliver your credit card payment.

You would think that 3 business days is enough time for delivery of payment, but its not. I pay my credit cards off each month -- at least 7 days days in advance to take account of any fluctuations in delivery schedules -- so I save money on interest and late fees.

The majority of my cards are paid online so 1) I don't have to pay postage; and 2) I know that the payment arrives there. But I have one low-limit card where I authorized my son to use so he buy gas and school supplies while at college. Normally the bill is around $100 so I was little curious when it was $150. I read the statement: Gas, Gas, Late Fee $39, Interest $1.51; WTF!

Like I said, I pay the bill at least 7 days in advance to avoid this frustration. I mailed the payment on the 28th and it got posted 3 days late, 12 days latter. Absolutely nothing you can do. You can call the Credit Card Company and bitch until you're blue in the face and you're going to get the same answer.

I'm sure each and everyone of us has had this conversation

I'm sorry, the terms and conditions clearly state that your account is credited upon arrival of your payment before 12 PM on that business day... blah, blah, blah, .... Sorry, we do not keep a record of the payment envelope or when it was post marked... blah, blah, blah, .... But you would be happy to know that we do recycle your envelope to make our country a greener place.

So what can you do about it? If you pay off your credit card statement by mail each month, make sure that when the statement arrives, write a check for the entire balance, and put it in the mail the very next day. Or better yet, sign up for online payment with your bank or with the Credit Card Company so you can avoid fees and interest due to late payments.