I’ve never paid a late fee on a credit card and with some fees now moving upwards of $35 t $50 it’s a good thing I don’t let that cash out of my bank account.  So how is it done?   I essentially charge all my purchases and expenses with a credit card.   I pay my satellite bill, cell phones, electric bill, gas, groceries, etc all on my credit card.

The mechanics of the system are as follows:

Each bill has a certain time of the month that it is paid for example:

Satellite Bill – Due every 15th of the month – $130

Electric Bill – Due every 25th of the month – $150

As you can see,  there is  a 10 day window of when my satellite bill will charge my credit card vs when my electric company will charge my credit card and note that most credit card companies offer a 25 day grace period of interest free charging.

So the way to avoid paying a late fee is to simply send the credit card company a check every week for the amount of money you’re expected to pay on all your expenses for the month divided the four week period.   So if my groceries are costing $300/month, with cell phone $100/month, electric $150/month, satellite $130/month = $680/month.

Essentially you can send your credit card company $170 each week and by the end of the month when your credit card bill comes due it is already been paid.   The key when initially starting this process up is to maximize the interest free grace period of 25 days but eventually you’ll get into a cycle of paying x amount every week.

By paying each week there is no way you’ll ever be hit with a late fee because you’re paying at least 25% of your total expenses at least 4 times each month.

If this system is too complicated then you can simply take your balance of say $3000 and calculate the minimum monthly payment of say 2% = $60/month then simply program your online bank (or write weekly check) of $15 to XYZ Bank every week or just send them $50 every week and you’ll be fine unless of course you have a $30,000 balance ;) and are in an arbitrage gambit.

This system mitigates all the dirty credit card tricks of changing your due date, changing minimum amount due and similar games.