Save Money: Avoid Credit Card Late Payment Fees

It's not fun when you realize you've missed paying a credit card bill by its due date. What makes it even worse is the $30.00 (or more) late payment fee. Even with the best of intentions, forgetting to pay that bill could happen more than once in a year. That's some serious money you're blowing on late payment fees.

If you are trying to save money, the first thing to do is stop allowing this to happen. Getting your bills payed on time comes with a few benefits other than preventing late payment fees.

Peace of mind knowing those bills are paid.
Improve your credit rating by paying them on time.
Knowing how much 'play money' you have after bills.

I have tried using different financial sites with all the bells and whistles but the problem was too many bells and whistles. I simply didn't need all that. I also didn't like the idea of my financial information (account numbers, etc.) being so exposed.

What I have been using for two years has helped me avoid late fees. It's free and simple to set up and use.

I use OpenOffice.org to make my 'bill payment table'. If you don't have it you can download it free, here.... http://www.openoffice.org/

If you've never worked with OpenOffice you're in for a treat! In Windows XP (What I use), go to
Start>All Programs>OpenOffice.org 3.3>OpenOffice.org Writer.

When you are ready to create your first table, go to the table icon on the toolbar. Click here to see an image of the table icon if you're not sure where that is.

Next, decide how many columns you want. The way I built my table is with six columns across and thirteen rows down. I have these columns across:

Account
Due Date
Pay Date
Amount (of payment)
Balance (if any)
Confirmation number

Click here to see an image of the table icon with six columns and thirteen rows selected.

If you pay bills online, you'll often get a confirmation number after you completed a payment. Recording the confirmation number can be valuable if payment of the bill is questioned.

You table should look like this:

Tips for your table:

Add bills in a red font color until they are paid then change them to black.

You can also add an extra column at the bottom for total of bills and total of remaining payments if you don't pay them all at once.

Save your 'bill payments' file on a flash drive in case of a computer crash or if you need to access your bill payments from a different computer. Also there's never a copy on the hard drive for anyone to see.

When you pay off a credit card don't forget to insert 'PAID OFF!' in the 'Balance' column!

Source: Personal experience