I Never Paid My Credit Card Bill Late Until....

I enrolled in a credit card debt relief program.

That's right since I had to send in the money via money order, then the counseling group had to process it and send it out. This long process resulted in delays and late payments to the credit card companies for the first time ever.

How Were The Late Payments Handled?

I was very disturbed when I found that the new arrangement actually resulted in my payments being late. I contacted the counseling service and they said that this wasn't unusual in the beginning of the program and that I should contact the credit card companies and explain the situation to them and they will eliminate the late fee and remove the late flag from my account.

I did as they requested and sure enough the credit card companies responded as they indicated they would. But the next month it all was repeated again. This happened for a few months. The final solution was to push back the payment dates of some cards so there would be time for the counseling service to process the incoming payments.

It was a stressful time. I had never been late for any payment and as soon as I signed up I was being listed as late. Fortunately the group that I signed on with had processes in place to remove any late marks and fees from the clients record.

The good news is that now the credit counseling services use many more methods for accepting funds, from money orders to electronic fund transfers, so the problems I ran into should be fewer.