That's why you should have it set to autopay the minimum balance.

Also consider using yodlee to aggregate the accounts.

Posted by LSD | April 23, 2007 7:29 AM

You are overreacting. If you call and talk with a CSR or a Manager depending on the situation and calmly explain you missed the minimum payment for whatever reason and you would like to have the late fees and interest removed and to make sure your 0% offer stays in place I'm sure they will do it. I've done this numerous times with different cards over the years with and without 0% offers and they have removed it every time.

They were correct saying they could not credit back the fees since they have not posted. Just wait till they post and then call up and do as I stated above. It requires some work but you should have things cleared up fairly quickly.

Posted by Ray | April 23, 2007 8:19 AM

I made a similar gaffe last year and Citi was very easy to work with, I didn't lose my 0%.

Posted by whoDean | April 23, 2007 9:18 AM

Bummer. I suppose you paid off the balance immediately because the Terms and Conditions stated that a late payment would result in the default interest rate. Its a risky business.

I am "balancing" 2 cards right now for 12 months and about $29,500. One from Citi. The other is a BofA card, which is nice because their online interface allows the setup of automatic billpay (your choice of minimum payment, full balance, or other amount). In fact they have an offer going right now on the three cards in the link below, 12 months free balance transfer/cash advances, fee-free. Just be sure to save the terms and conditions, they tried to do a switch-a-roo on me the first time through, and I had to fax them copies of their own documents to prove that I knew what I was talking about. (!)

https://offers.bankofamerica.com/ConsumerCard/OTS5Offer.aspx

Posted by Jonathan C | April 23, 2007 9:53 AM

How about post when you have payments due online then maybe one of your kind readers will help remind you?

Posted by Eric | April 23, 2007 10:16 AM

2 mill, 2 mill, 2 mill,
I'm sorry you missed your payment. Thanks for being brave enough and letting us know. That took guts. I have changed my mind about you. You are an OK guy! I think you are doing a great job and should be congratulated for your efforts. It's not easy and you just keep at it.
No 'I told you so's', just a word of encouragement to keep on, keeping on.

Posted by Never Again Debt | April 23, 2007 11:17 AM

Get a Yodlee MoneyCenter (moneycenter.yodlee.com) account! It's free, and you can set up alerts that email you and show up on your Yodlee dashboard for things like new credit card bills. I have never lost track of any sort of payment since I started using it.

Posted by CT | April 23, 2007 1:07 PM

We all get busy. Just remember that you do many other things to help your financial position. I know this hurts your mindset with your bills for the moment, but hopefully the damage should be minimal. Citi is always willing to work with me, and im sure they will be willing to work with you. Good luck!

Posted by Anonymous | April 23, 2007 6:22 PM

Doh! was it a year long one? How much are you making from it? etc. I've been learning about this 0% thing to see if its doable. Thanks for sharing!

Posted by Juan Millon | April 23, 2007 9:07 PM

It could happen to any of us. At least you noticed it pretty fast. You still made money on it. I keep a spreadsheet of all my credit cards and when I get the statement I update the payment info and usually set up the payment immediately. This spreadsheet has came in handy as I have $25,000 in 0% credit cards on 6 different cards.

Posted by Sharon | April 24, 2007 10:52 AM

Don't sweat it, I've done that before. I even managed to do it twice on one account. They waived the fee the first time but not the second. However, my 0% rate remained intact and there was no universal default.

Posted by Scott | April 24, 2007 10:55 AM

I pay my minimum as soon as I get notice that its due so there is no way it will be late. Also computed the interest on the minimum and its in the sub-dollar range.

Posted by Larry | April 24, 2007 11:50 AM

That is the correct reaction to what you have done: clean it up immediately. Pay of the card; close the account. Try it again with a different card.

Posted by Bronco | April 24, 2007 5:01 PM

Good luck. I used to get nervous when I had $30k of those 0% deals out there, on four different cards. Now I'm down to one, and it's on automatic payment.

Posted by CPA1298 | April 24, 2007 7:41 PM

I had commented the other day, but I'm not seeing it show up.

You should have no problem calling and asking for credits on the late fee, and interest charge. You should also ask to make sure the 0% offer is still in place. Explain that you thought you had auto payment setup etc, and if the CSR denies it, simply ask to speak to a Manager. I'm 99% sure you will have all of the above done.

From time to time this happens and it has happened to me also, but a call or two will straighten things out. Just make sure you don't do it 3 times, as it gets hard on the 3rd time.

Good Luck

Posted by Ray | April 25, 2007 1:32 PM

Hey 2 Million,

Things like that happen all the time, no worries.

The one question I have for you is: why don't you just dump the credit card debt? Then you won't have to deal with problems like this at all.

Best,

James

Posted by James | April 25, 2007 3:05 PM

Sorry to hear about the late payment. That happened to me before with a card I had a great balance transfer rate on. Luckily I didn't lose the rate. So, you might be ok. Don't jump ship too fast. Check before you pay off that card.

Posted by Anonymous | April 27, 2007 5:56 PM

Hey,just a thought, but pay off all or most of the credit and STOP using the plastic. You have cash, so use some of that to drop the balance.

Posted by chris | April 29, 2007 10:58 AM

To the guys saying Pay of the credit card debt and Stop using plastic. 2million is probably doing what a lot of us do making 5% on other peoples money. Take the 0% money and drop it in a 5+% savings account for 6 to 12 months. I doubt if its a debt thing.

Cheers

Posted by theWizard | April 29, 2007 9:48 PM

So this doesn't happen again, how about maybe using the online banking to schedule the minimum payment automatically for you? I know that using ETrade for my online bank, I can setup automatic transfers from different things (like savings) or other accounts to pull money into my checking where i then cut bills from. Works pretty well that way nothing ever gets lost.

Posted by Keith Elder | April 30, 2007 12:38 PM

I just finished paying off all my and my wife's debt. All we have left is the house.

I used to play those 0% interest games also. SO much stress.

Good luck, and try to pay them off!

Posted by After Bankruptcy | May 2, 2007 1:25 PM

One will also have to keep track of the expiration of the 0% introductory rate.

Posted by Dog | May 16, 2007 4:42 PM

You know, I think Citi made a killing that month. I had mine set up on autopay for the minimum, but they revamped their website and it was no longer compatible with my bank's billpay. My bank dutifully left me a little note in my billpay account (which was overlooked for quite some time). And the bill didn't get paid. Seems like Citi did that on purpose. I also paid mine in full after getting late fees reversed. Still paid over $80 in finance charges that month, though. Ouch! Never again will I go with Citi.

Posted by g in az | May 23, 2007 6:38 PM

We have our 2 Discover and 2 Citi 0% accounts set up on direct debit. The credit card companies take the minimum payments out of our checking account each month when due. You have to call the credit card companies to request the direct debit form to sign up and after that the credit card companies handle the payments. We are making $200 extra per month thanks to your 0% APR info. Thanks!

Posted by Anonymous | May 26, 2007 10:07 PM

Well, being one day late for a payment is not a big deal. You can always negotiate the issue with the bank.

Posted by credit card clever | June 26, 2007 5:33 AM

Adventures in Balance Transferring (!)

I pulled up your post again because I wanted to leave a follow-up comment on a 'hitch' in my own balance transfer adventure.

I've been doing this for almost 2 years now, through Citibank and Bank of America, having borrowed approx. $40,000 fee-free and interest-free for 1 year. I consider myself pretty careful, good at reading the terms&conditions, and exclusively bite on 12-month 0% cash advances with no transfer fee.

On one of my said transactions with bank of America, being only a credit card customer, I could set up automatic payments of the minimum monthly payment to my external, 3rd party money market earning 5%. It was working awesome for 5 months straight so I depended on it. Last month they ran a $100 promotion to open a fee-free checking account--no minimum balance, etc. I took the bait, and was immediately and unknowingly re-classified by Bank of America as a multiple-account customer (credit+checking), and they discontinued my online banking option of automatic payments from my 3rd party money market. So, being totally unaware of their messing with my classification and online banking settings, missed a payment, got a $40 late fee, and almost $200 in finance charges for 1 month alone, lost my 0% status and was bumped to 12% annually.

WOW!

So I got tough over the phone with a few account managers and had the whole thing cleared up. But that was 2 hours of my day I wish I had back. As it now stands, I have been reimbursed my finance charge and late fee, and fully expect to be reset to my 0% rate...but I need to wait a day or so.

As this has been totally and utterly annoying, I might even be able to get another 6-12 mo. of 0% promotion for being jerked around like this. That just means more mulah.

Whew.

This just goes to show that these banks are really out to nail you through these offers, and you've gotta tread really, really carefully.

This is the 2nd time BofA has tried to change the terms of their agreement and/or change options within my online banking interface *without* advising me about it. So Beware! Keep your documentation and stick to your guns. And if the first account manager/customer rep. says 'no', just call in again and get a more decent drone.

Jonathan

Posted by Jonathan C | September 27, 2007 9:54 AM

How did this work out? I am going through the same thing now...one day late....ugh

I have been late before and they have forgiven the finance/late fee, but never on a balance transfer like I am now.

I am thinking of calling when my statement closes and saying they said they would remove it when my statement closes.... :)

Posted by shane | October 20, 2008 2:04 PM