Normally I leave my outgoing mail next to the front door so I don’t forget to take it on my way out. Last month, I had two checks ready to pay off a credit card and my HOA fee. Unfortunately, it seems that I never mailed them. I had to pay a late fee for last month’s HOA fee when I wrote a check for two months. (The credit card payment is a non-issue because it was an extra payment so no late fee was incurred there.)
I knew something fishy was going on. I just haven’t had a lot of interest in paying attention to matters lately. I saw the checks had never cleared via Quicken and I began to wonder if I had mailed them out. While rummaging around the mess of papers that is my glob of taxes for 2006, I found the envelopes.
I already voided them out in Quicken, but i’m wondering if i can still send the credit card payment and then slip in a new HOA slip for April into the second envelopes so that I don’t waste the checks, nor the stamps.
Don’t break your patterns. Keep your routines. Place your mail by the door like you always do. Avoid those late fees. But stop biting your fingernails.
Sorry for the late post today. I suspect posting will be light for most of the rest of this month. Work is going wonderfully well, there’s just a lot of it! Spring is here and the warm weather beckons for time away from the computer.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey MapGirl, that sucks, the same thing happened to me a couple months ago. Lent a friend money with paypal, and decided to wait till he gives it back to make a Big payment instead of the minimum. Got the money back but forgot to pay the creditcard. Got the late fee a few days later… =[
Don’t feel too bad, it happends to the best of us…
Your advice about not breakin your routine is Key-
Two words: BILL PAY. Most banks offer it for free now. It changed my life. Seriously.
Second to the online billpay comment above. I set the payments on the day the bills arrive in the mail, and they get paid the day they are due. I’ve even paid a credit card statement that got lost in the mail on the way to me, because I looked at my list of pending payments and historical payments one morning and realized it had been over a month since I had sent them a payment. A quick stop at my online account with them and I fired off the balance due through billpay with three days to spare.
THIRD vote for online billpay! My bank offered a $10 bonus if you signed up for it and paid 3 bills within 30 days…I jumped all over that offer, and have been using it ever since! It is a wonderful tool, no check writing, no buying stamps all the time, and NO late fees!! I love it!
Fourth vote for BillPay. I haven’t had a late fee in two years, and as Cheryl says, I’ve saved a ton on stamps and checks. Whoot, whoot!
not to join the choir, but bill pay is where it’s at. it removes the tension of juggling due dates and checks and mailing stuff. I’ll just plop down in front of the computer once ro twice a month and send off payments whether I’ve gotten the bill or not. Having a month’s income saved up means early payments on credit cards and less interest paid — and it means everything gets paid.
for stuff that needs physical action, it takes forever. I’ve got a check I need to deposit for some sewing that I’ve carried around for more than a week. sigh.
Ouch, I’ve been there. I’ll agree and say do it all online. If there is a web address on ANY bill that allows payments, 99% of the time I make that payment online. It really just makes life easier.