New Financial Plan

Early on I never put much on my credit cards.  I wasn’t spending that much.  So when the payments came due they were small.  One time I spent more than I noticed, more than I had free when the statement came.  When my statement came I was close to having enough to pay the whole balance but not quite there.

Without quite understanding how credit cards worked I decided to save up and pay off the balance in one shot instead of sending little payments.  In my blissful ignorance I threw away the statement and figured that soon enough I would have the full amount and send it all in at once.  Whoops!  Of course I forgot to send any payment until the next statement came.  Not only was the balance bigger, but all sorts of interest and fees were on there.  That was an expensive lesson.

A while later I was up to using several credit cards and getting rewards for them.  I would pay them all off each month and file the bills away.  All of the cards had different grace periods and cycle dates.  So there were statements coming in several times a month, and payments due several times a month.  Wouldn’t you know I confused the dates and ended up with one payment early and another late.  I didn’t even notice until the next statements came in.

Late payment fees again, interest charges again.  This time I knew a bit more and thought I was doing everything right.  I called the companies and tried to sort things out.  The late payment fee was forgiven.  I changed the dates on my accounts so that they were a bit more in line.  I set up a system for myself of gathering all the bills in one place and paying them in two big batches.  It’s better to get it all done with less work and fuss.  Some payments are early, none are late, and there is way less room for error.