Jim Charter wrote:
> Yes I have to understand this grace period concept better.  I was under 
> the impression that at say midnight of the day of the due date which is 
> I think the 15th of the month, if I happened to have an amount owed 
> showing, then I would be charged interest. 

Yes. But there's a grace period, meaning that if you charge something on 
the 1st, and it shows up on the bill on the 3rd, and the payment is due 
on the 10th, that particular charge won't be part of what you need to 
pay. In other words, if your payment date is the 15th, anything charged 
after the beginning of the month shows up not on this bill but on the 
next bill, giving you a two-week grace period. They should be mailing 
you the bill weeks before the payment due date. If they haven't mailed 
you the bill for it, you don't need to pay it yet, even if it was 
charged between the time they mailed you the bill and the time the bill 
is due.

 > But if I put a transfer in
> to pay it before the deadline I would be okay.  So far, try as I might, 
> I seem to forget to check at deadline time.

Pay it when the bill shows up. Leave it on the breakfast table, so it's 
annoyingly in the way every morning, then just ... take care of it. 
There are some things you have to do, like putting gas in the car, that 
you just have to do.

> I do pay most of my bills online, but as onetime payments usually.

Me too. I used to just write checks, but paying online is just as easy 
at this point. And handy if you know you'll be away.

> Yeah I know, and most of hte time that works, it's just taxing for me to 
> caonstantly remember.

What's to remember? The bill shows up in the mail, you pay it that day. :-)

> Wow! That's just way out of my league.  Even if I had the space for such 
> a device my mail would start lapping the month.

Well, yes. To be honest, I don't even do that. :-) But it's the way 
(say) a small business handles it, where it's worth deferring bills 
until the due date.

Better is to just pay it when it shows up.

> Thanks for taking the time, Darren

Sure. It's just a habit you need to get into, like looking at the gas 
guage once in a while, and stopping when you need to.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
  Ever notice how people in a zombie movie never already know how to
  kill zombies? Ask 100 random people in America how to kill someone
  who has reanimated from the dead in a secret viral weapons lab,
  and how many do you think already know you need a head-shot?

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