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Tips to manage the credit card late payment fee hike
The level of competition is heating up amongst banks these days in all aspects and it does not seem to be cooling off. Latest player to jump on the bandwagon of increasing credit card fees is OCBC Bank. As of 1st June 2017, OCBC Bank have announced that they will be increasing their credit cards’ late payment fee to $100.
This latest increase comes a month after DBS Bank announced their increased fee and it was understood that this is to ensure a uniform set of late payment charge across all their credit cards. Now who would have expected otherwise but the reason just doesn’t gel.
Since banks are upping their level of fees, we as consumers really should up our level of game too. Let us teach you some tricks to save yourself from incurring unnecessary charges.
Negotiate for waiver
Since we always ask for a waiver on cards’ annual fee, why not ask for a waiver on late payment fee too? Especially if you have been diligently paying your bills in full and am only late for a day or two. Just call the hotline and be firm with your request. Try not to ask them but demand it (in a nice way). Remember, don’t give up after the first attempt.
Read your credit card bills
A lot of us tends to receive bills via snail mail or the tech-savvy ones will get email / SMS notifications of the latest bills. First action, dump the mails probably or notifications will go unnoticed. Stop! You may want to start looking at your bills.
Often than not, we disregard such mails (especially if it is reminder letters) and the tendency of missing payment from this behavior will cause us greatly. How great will that be? A potential loss of $100 if you hold a DBS / OCBC credit card.
Learn to read that letter to save that $100 a month to spend elsewhere. Best of all, spend and earn cashback with that. That’s being money smart!
Align your billing cycle
You know your pay comes in on the 29th of every month but your bill due date falls on the 25th of every month. Call in the hotline and ask for a change on your due date. Best practice is to shift it to 2 days later after your pay comes in, say the 1st or 2nd of the month, just in case your pay comes in late. Not all banks may allow these but as always, no harm trying.
Payment’s BEST practice
The unbeatable way to stop incurring late payment fee, GIRO PAYMENT! Set aside an account solely for bill payments and remember to choose a high interest paying account, like the OCBC 360 / BOC SmartSaver Account. Earn higher interest with your savings to offset a bit of your bill.
Next, go fill up the application form (easily found on the bank’s website) to set up automated payment to your credit card bills via GIRO. This way, you can be assured the payments are always on time. Just ensure that there are sufficient funds in the account to pay your fixed expenses bills and a comfortable limit for your credit card spending.
Now you have learnt a trick or two to save on that fee, go ahead and indulge in yourself today with that savings! Before you do, don’t forget to visit us GoBear and compare for the best credit card deals to help you sieve the card that suits your spending best and save more.
This article is proudly sponsored by GoBear and first appeared here.
Choosing insurance and financial products was once a complicated and dull process. It was filled with tricks and different terms and conditions. Andre Hesselink didn’t think that was fair. He thought comparing insurance and financial products should be simple, straight forward and transparent. So, with the help of like-minded people, they solved this problem, leading us to GoBear.
(By GoBear)
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