How To Get Late Fees Reversed Even If You Actually Paid Late

February 28, 2018

First of all, I need to clarify that I would never advocate paying bills late — not only can it become costly, but it can quickly ruin your credit score — even after you’ve paid a late bill, once it’s on your report as a late payment, it stays; only time will heal that wound. This post is specific to rare instances where you realize you forgot to make a payment and less than one billing cycle has passed (past due accounts are typically reported on a monthly basis to credit bureaus).

The story

A couple of weeks ago, I logged in to my bank account and realized that the payment for my credit card hadn’t posted and it was at least 3 days after it was due. A feeling of dread took over as I slowly logged in to my credit card to find that yep, I had a late fee and interest charges assessed on my entire balance. (Now that I’m debt-free, I pay my card off every month and just enjoy the cash back rewards)

I SWORE I had scheduled the payment weeks before, but as I searched my email, I couldn’t find any confirmation. The reality was, I’d forgotten. A costly mistake as the late fee alone was $35, plus interest for that month’s charges, which happened to be a month where I had a lot of work travel, so a higher balance than normal.

You may have a get out of jail free card

Most people, upon realizing that the error was truly their own, would be likely to just pay the fee and interest and then set a reminder to make sure this Never. Happens. Again. However, I figured it couldn’t hurt to plead for mercy. Here’s what I did:

• Submitted a payment for the full balance immediately.
• Opened an online chat window with a card company rep.
• Explained that I’d simply forgotten to schedule the payment but had since paid in full.
• Pointed out my long history as a cardholder as well as my record of on-time payments.
• Asked if there was any way I could have the fee and/or interest reversed?

After a brief pause while the agent looked into it, I got the best news: as a valued card member, they were happy to make this one-time exception and reverse all charges. Success!

I had to wait about a week for all the charges to reverse, and then the following month, more interest charges showed up for the few days that I’d carried that balance over into the next statement cycle, but a quick chat message with a reminder of the previous conversation was all it took to have that reversed as well.

You’ll never know if you don’t ask

The lesson here isn’t to be sloppy with making bill payments – do it too many times and not only will those fees add up, but it could also really hurt your credit score. However, if you’re diligent about paying on time and happen to have a little brain fart like I did, it doesn’t hurt to ask for mercy. And with online chat windows, you may not even have to pick up the phone!

Scheduling autopayments

You may find yourself asking why I don’t just set up my bills to go on auto-pay, which is a legitimate question. I do use auto-pay for my bills that have a consistent amount due, like my cell phone and even electric bills, but for credit cards, I prefer to keep it manual because the amounts can fluctuate greatly, so I want to be sure that there will be enough in my account to cover the payments. Sometimes that requires me to move funds from my savings, especially when I’ve charged something that I’d been saving for like a vacation. Another reason I do it this way: because I enjoy it. (nerd alert!)

If you tend to keep a bigger cushion in your checking account (my Type A personality has me keeping the “cushion” in an attached savings with a higher interest rate), then scheduling auto-pay for everything may be an alternate solution. Just make sure you’re still logging in periodically (ideally at least once a month) to check that things are working!