Only 9 days to avoid late fee on bill?

   When in the world did 9 or 12 days become acceptable lengths of time to
give people to get their payment in?

  I just got my natural gas bill, which gives me a max of 9 mailing days (I
don't count Sunday, since the mail doesn't move on Sunday) to get my payment
in their office before levying a late fee on me.  That means I have a
maximum of about 5 or 6 mailing days to get it in the mail, or else it would
be late.

  My credit card bill also came, and it gives me all of 12 mailing days to
get my payment in their office.  That gives me about 8 or 9 days to get
payment in the mail.

  It isn't just the regular bills - some places seem to be going out of
their way to upset people.  Late last year, I got a speeding ticket because
of a speed trap out in the middle of nowhere, right where folks came off the
Interstate.  I didn't have my checkbook with me, and wasn't about to pay the
extra $10 "Convenience Fee" to use my credit card online, so I waited until
I got back from Florida to pay it with a check.  When I mailed it, I still
had well over a week before it had to get to them.

  About a month later, I got a notice that my license had been suspended,
because I hadn't paid the ticket.  However, I was able to see that they had
cashed the check - nearly a week after the payment had been due.  Delivery
confirmation showed that they had gotten the payment in plenty of time -
about 3 days before payment was due, so the whole delay was their fault, not
mine.  I got to spend lots of time on the phone straightening out their
mess.

  When did this sort of thing become the norm?  I thought places were
supposed to give a minimum of 3 weeks for people to pay their bills?  Didn't
it use to be almost a full month?

  OhioGuy wrote:

Call or write to them and say that you wish to renegotiate your
service contract. Insist that they give you a reasonable amount
of time to pay before they add late fees. If they do not wish
to renegotiate then cancel their service.

If you feel this doesn't give you enough bargaining power then
you can get together with a bunch of like minded people and
engage in collective negotiations.

You might also find out if there are any public agencies, such
as fair trade commissions, which would investigate this stuff.
Oddly enough, some business practices are actually illegal.

Anthony
--
Since when did it become legal to charge 68% on credit cards?

 

Set up automatic electronic payments and you won't need to worry about
it.

 
  That's not the point, really.  Sure, I know I could do that, but I won't
set up any automatic payments because I know it COULD end up costing me an
extra $20 if I don't happen to have the funds in there at the time.

  The point I was trying to make is that I don't think it is very ethical to
only give people just over a week to get their payments to you.  What if
people are on a two week vacation?  Heck, what if someone dies and they are
out of town for 8 days?  They wouldn't have any chance to get the payment in
on time.

  Historically, people had about a month from when the bill was sent out to
get the payment sent back.  I think that it is reasonable to expect this,
since the bills typically come on a monthly basis.

 

Even THAT doesn't matter. Just because some people LIKE automatic bank
withdrawals, consumers should not be forced to use them.

Greg