Question: Usually I pay all my credit card bills on time, but occasionally it happens that due to some reason I miss the due date by a day or two. So my question is that are these exorbitant $35 late fees fair practice?

Answer: For this question I’m going to start out on the bank’s side. A credit card in its real sense is a line of credit. The bank has made a commitment with you that it will continue to lend you money up to your credit line, and so you have also made a commitment with your bank that you will pay them back. When you don’t pay your bill on time, the bank begins to wonder if you’re going to pay it at all. So by penalizing cardholders for late payment by them, two things are done simultaneously by the bank one is that it trains you to make timely payments and the other is that doing this it gets periodic affirmation of your commitment to repay them. OK, so negative reinforcement is not liked by anyone, and $35 is a quite expensive reminder. Particularly when the banks use a couple of late payments as an excuse to raise the interest rate on your credit card.

So what you should do now? First of all, you should make a call to the credit card company. Tell them that you have decided to move the account if they don’t revoke the late fee. That thing will work the first time, but if it is your second time then it won’t work. Then you should ask yourself that why you are late with these bills. In order to fit your monthly budget flow you may need to organize the due dates .

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You should first shop around before that you sign up for the first low-rate offer that comes in your way. Maybe the great rate that is offered by the credit card company only lasts for six months or any savings you could enjoy from the low introductory rate might be eaten up by the annual fee.

Shop around for your Card

It is advised that you should do a little comparison shopping and you may get success in finding a card with the same rate for at least a year or another card that offers the same deal but charge no annual fee.

Use Credit Card Search Engine

An essential tool with which you can find the best card is the Bankrate.com which is credit card search engine. It serves as a great reference and comparison tool. You should keep it handy as you keep refining your choices.

If though you’ve already had your card for a while, but then also I suggest you to shop around again because now there might be a new deal with the same card company, or you may find a different, better arrangement out there with another card company that wants your business.

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