A Better Way to Manage Your Everyday Money - Book - Page 95
payment due date because in the program the statement is already marked as paid. The next
credit card statement will not reconcile because the refund has not been entered.
Syncing credit card payment due days with your spreadsheet column days works best when the
credit card payments are paid with an automatic withdrawal.
You can request a change to a credit card’s payment due day on the credit card company's
website.
Interest
Credit card companies charge interest at
an exorbitant rate on a credit card
account unpaid balance. The rates differ
for purchases and cash advances with the
latter normally being much higher. The
only way to avoid paying interest is to
pay the statement's new balance in full every month.
The simple way to ensure that each statement is paid in full and on time is to set up automatic
payments on the credit card company’s website for the statement's new balance amount.
Effects of late fees
Forgetting a credit card payment or making
a payment after the due date will result in a
late fee being added to the credit card
balance. Late fees are handled the same as
purchase transactions. They appear on
following statements and are included in the
calculation of interest on an unpaid balance.
Missing and making late payments can also have a negative impact on your credit score. As with
interest, setting up automatic credit card payments for the statement's new balance amount will
help you avoid late fees.
Lois and I use several credit cards that we use for specific purposes. We have no credit card debt
and pay no interest or late fees. All our credit cards are paid automatically. I enter all new
transactions and adjust scheduled payments in PerNetFlow within a day or so. I reconcile our
statements, also in PerNetFlow, as soon as they become available for download. Keeping up with
our credit card activity in the program takes minutes and costs nothing.
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