What bills have you paid late?

[1confused1]

*lurker coming out*

Things are incredibly tight this month.  XH owes me about $5000 (child support and his half of daycare costs) which I am sure I will never see.

I will probably have enough money to pay for daycare, but everything else (car payment, water, electricity, cable, phone and garbage) I will probably have to pay late.

So my question is, what have you paid late and not had a major consequence (like them shutting off your power, etc.).  I know I will have to pay late fees (unless I can get them waived).

Thank you!!!

[mollz007]

I think the only payment I've ever been late on is my credit card payment. I know that my electric company will work with you if you need an extension- we asked for a few extra days one time and they gave us a whole month.

[cjeanette]

I would pay phone and car. Talk to daycare and see of they can work with you. Same with utilities.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using proboards

[Deleted]

Utilities you can pay late. After the first thirty days you get the red letter. After 90 days they put a notice on your doorknob saying shutoff is imminent. My parents inherited a property in Florida and didn't know they had a separate water bill and it wasn't shut off for like two years. I'm sorry you're going through this.

[mollybrown]

How late are we talking? If you're talking a few weeks for the utilities, you're probably fine. I've accidentally paid utility bills late and not realized it, and they just sent a bill the following month including the new charges and the past due balance. I would have had at least 60 days to pay the bill without consequence.

[Deleted]

Utilities generally have grace periods. There are state and local laws surrounding the shut offs so please do not go by the advice that some are giving in this thread, they likely do not apply to you area.

If you are going to be late on any bills the best thing to do is call and let them know. Many companies will work with you. Even lenders will often let you change the due date or skip a payment- but you have to call.

[1confused1]

Thank you everyone!

I would be paying a few weeks late, hopefully. I am supposed to get a bonus in the middle of February, I just don't know how much it is going to be.

crackhabit, I would post my budget, but it is really unknown until the middle of the month.

[darthnbjenni]

Been there, done that. I went a year without any child support or maintenance from my ex-h in between our temporary hearing and final divorce - after he left me with a mortgage that my salary alone couldn't support, newborn twins on $400 of formula a month, and credit cards in my name that he ran up.

Call your utilities and see what they're willing to do. Most would not work with me, and I couldn't afford the $50+ reconnect fees if I was 30 days late. I also called my mortgage company and qualified for a mortgage assistance program, which was a life-saver. I did get behind on my car payments, and they repo'd my car from my work parking lot because I was $32 behind.

Do you qualify for any type of assistance?

[CloudBee]

I see you have garbage listed. Can you suspend that temporarily and drive your trash to the dump? Or just go a couple weeks without pickup?

If your husband hasn't been paying his share for daycare, you might talk to them to see if they have any sort of sliding scale or fund available. It's on him, not you, so don't feel bad asking.

[Deleted]

You can also call your car loan company and talk to them. If you are good about payments they may offer to give you a one time movement of your payment and then tack it on to the end of your loan. I know it has happened for some people and I got something a few years ago at Christmas that offered this.
Also check about payment plans with the utilities.

[gibbinator]

If you call your cable company they may have the option to suspend your services for a couple months (generally 30-90 days) For a nominal fee (like $3/mo) so you wouldn't have to pay late fees, cancelation fees or hookup fees when you can afford the services again.

It's also usually nbd if your payment is less than 30 days late.

Sorry you're having to deal with this :-(

[halfpint]

I will confess, I used to semi-often forget to pay my cable bill. They'd let me go for a while, then one day I'd come home and it would be off. No fee, never reported to credit bureau, they would just switch it back on when I called in.

They were one of the only billers then I couldn't set up on e-bill, and at least every 4-6 months I'd forget them.

So that might be one?

Also, student loans will let you defer in case of hardship.

I second the advice to call, though. More than you think may work with you, especially if you have a good payment history.

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2013 23:53:07 GMT -5 @crackhabit said:

Bill juggling takes planning. I had to do it for much longer than I care to remember.


Sent from my Jesus, the app sucks. Patrick - fix it please!

I'm glad I'm not the only person in this thread who has had to do this before. I used to know, down to the day, when companies would start disconnecting/ calling/ flagging my account. I knew all the laws concerning disconnects and service interruptions too. lol.

[LoveTrains]

Some how my auto pay go turned off for my cable last summer. It wasn't until it was 3 months late that we figured it out. I just paid it all at that time and it was never reported to credit bureaus.

[1confused1]

Thank you again everyone. I will be making lots of phone calls tomorrow!

And, yes, I am fighting for every penny my XH owes me, it is just a long process.

[Deleted]

Depends on how late. Usually car and mortgage have a grace period, so I've paid those a few days late depending on when the pay check date falls. There are usually no consequences if you pay during the grace period, but I wouldn't advise waiting beyond that for your car since they will reposess it at some point.

Utilities I've paid late by accident a couple of times. There is usually a penalty but it is minimal, something like 5% of the bill. So I might pay those late in your circumstances.

Do you think you'll be just paying them late but still paying them? If so I wouldn't worry too much. It's when you fall further behind and end up not paying them at all that you run into issues.

Our local food bank can sometimes help out with late utility payments, not sure if your circumstances would force you into that but it might be an option.