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If you're like a lot of people, your monthly bills
lack balance. They are weighted toward the beginning or middle of
the month, making it tough to scrape together enough money to pay
all the bills.
It's probably worst at the beginning of the month,
when you have a hefty mortgage or rent payment and maybe a car payment
and a credit card bill or two. Then, in the middle of the month,
your bills don't total nearly as much.
A balancing act
Why not move your bills around, so they're not so heavy one part
of the month and so light at another? Some issuers will allow you
to balance out your monthly payments by changing the due dates on
your credit cards. All you have to do is call the customer-service
number on the bill and ask.
Just make sure that you pay your bills on time while
the changes take effect. Don't expect this to be a quick fix for
a cash-flow crunch. It takes a billing cycle, and sometimes two,
before the date change takes effect. Meantime, you have to observe
your due dates before the change takes effect, or you'll risk late-payment
charges and possibly an unfriendly notation on your credit report.
I know how this works firsthand because most of my
credit-card bills became due between the first and 15th of the month.
This made it hard to pay the bills because my mortgage payment was
due at the same time. After the mortgage payment took a huge chunk
out of the checkbook balance, I would have trouble paying the credit
card bills.
Different cards, different rules
I called two card issuers and got different results. MBNA,
the issuer of my MasterCard, allowed me to choose the payment due
date no questions asked. I pushed back the due date from the seventh
to the 18th, allowing me to pay the bill in the middle of the month,
when my only major bill was a car payment.
American Express, though, was inflexible. I couldn't
move the due date, but the customer-service representative told
me that Amex's due date is only a recommendation. As long as the
company receives payment before the next month's closing date, it's
not considered late. That gives customers almost a month-long grace
period -- enough time to pay when it's convenient to the cardholder.
If you carry a balance on your card, pushing the due
date back a few days could cost you a little more on your next bill,
because finance charges will continue to accrue. In other words,
if you push back your due date by 10 days, you might have to pay
40 days' worth of finance charges on your next bill instead of 30
days' worth.
But at least you might have enough in your checking
account to pay your credit card bill.
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