Help me understand here: They call you to tell them they haven't received your payment while you still have time to do something about it with no penalty, and you're complaining?

What if you had forgotten, or the payment had gotten lost in the mail, and they had not informed you but dinged your credit rating instead. Would you now be saying that you don't understand why they hadn't notified you earlier? Or would it have been OK with you that they waited?

"Payment was due on the 4th - so this month I mailed it on the 4th."
Major mistake there...

"And our credit ratings are 780 so it's not like we don't pay our bills on time. "

ummm... you did not pay THIS bill on time!
Putting something in the mail on the dues date is NOT paying your bills on time.
A DUE date is when they expect payment to be processed by.
Not when it is mailed by you.

Be happy they called and are giving you a grace period...

I understand what you are all saying. But - mortgage payment due 1st - grace period until 15th. I pay it electronic the 12th no problem there on the credit report.
If I have a 10 day grace period where they are not going to charge me a late fee why start calling me on the 3rd day? I could see maybe on the 9th or 10th? If I take my chances and get a late fee because my payment doesn't make it there within their period that IS my problem and I take responsibility for it. I guess what I'm saying is I don't understand companies that still expect you to pay by the USPS and don't give ANY type of leeway around it. (That is unless you want to pay extra for it).

You are abusing the grace period that companies offer you and then complaining about it. The payment is still late. Pay your bills on time and you won't have to worry about it.

And quit blaming the post office. You put the payment in the mail the day it was due. If you've been on the planet long enough to own a car, you know darn well that when you do that, the payment will be late.

You paid the bill late. It is your fault. Quit blaming other people.

It's really simple...

The DUE date is the 4th, so put it in the mail 7 days prior.

That way the payment has sufficient time to get there via mail and to be processed before it is DUE.

I'll take the other side of this debate..technically, it is late..However, i always play the float,on every bill..Have for 25+ years,if you have 10 days grace period,i see no reason for it to get there on due date...In an interest-bearing account,which i have,(though yield is minimal these days)i figure over 30 years i have pocketed some nice coin!!! My credit rating is over 800, so no downfall for doing such..

Getting back to the OT,i think it is great they called you.In case you had forgotten,you'd have still had plenty of time to get them the $$$ without penalty..

Thank you qdwag - that is what I was saying. I have always taken the float when I can without a penalty. If I get "caught" - oh well, I pay the late fee, my fault.
My "complaint" was that I thought that their calling at 3 days late premature. And the impression was that if the payment wasn't in by today they were going to call everyday until it WAS in. That's was I didn't like about it.

So if you want to floaet, expect the phone call. Don't get mad that they call you.
I get calls once in a while from a bank because I also every month make my payment on the 10th, sometimes they call on the 9th, but if they look at my payment history it is paid by my bank billpay setup every month at the same date. I think they are wasting their time, but I certainly don't get angry with them, and rant about the phone call. It takes me thirty seconds to say I pay every month, same date, thank them, then hang up.
If I paid by mail I would be more cautious.
Don't be so angry you are talking to a low level clerk with a prepared spiel to harass you into paying, don't blame them, they know little about finance or bill paying.

Annie, you are a new customer to them; you have not yet established payment history. I would venture to guess that if this was your 12th payment to them, you would not have received a call 3 days after the due date, if the previous 11 payments had been on time.

One of the nuances to auto lending is that some consumers finance the vehicle, make one or two payments and then they and the car "disappear". It's referred to as a skip and run.

Auto finance companies experience a lot of losses, even when clients have prime FICO scores. This is because, unlike a house, the collateral has wheels :).

Another piece of advice is that one late fee will pretty much wipe out any benefit of "float" by mailing your payment so close to the due date, especially in this interest rate environment. The float value of $600 is probably around 2 cents per day, assuming your deposit is earning 1.50%. So, I agree with the poster who suggested getting the check in the mail 7 days before it is due.

Having worked in receivables even if there is a no penalty if paid by a certain day you are penlizing yourself because interest is figured on the balance for each given day. You may use the float days but by doing so if you have a $1,000 due on the first and do not pay it until the tenth you are paying interest on the balance + the $1,000 during the float days. Some companies do remove the extra accumulated interest but many do not.

If the name Citizen's Auto Finance is the real name of the company you are probably doing business with a buy here, pay here company. They make their money from doing repo's from people that just don't make the payment on time. Do not be surprised if the payment does not make it within the float time that the car has been removed from your parking space the last day of the time period. The grace period for them ends at 12:01 am of the last day.

I do the same thing with my taxes. School taxes due Jan 1. Must be postmarked by Jan 30. I drive to the Town Hall and hand it to them on Jan 30. I have also mailed it and made sure it was postmarked. My school taxes are $8,500 twice a year. You know that money will sit in my account for the 30 days.

Never got a phone call.
Jane

maifleur says:
You may use the float days but by doing so if you have a $1,000 due on the first and do not pay it until the tenth you are paying interest on the balance + the $1,000 during the float days.

Huh? If it is a fixed car payment, a cable bill/phone bill/credit card bill,et al, that is not true if paid in full,no additional interest is accrued...

jane__ny - do you have a separate school tax where you live?
Do you pay any other taxes?
Is this a city property tax that goes to your school?

Maifleur - I certainly don't think that dh's car is "going to be removed from our parking space" if we don't get our payment in by day 11. (Over a $10 late fee?) Now, that is being extreme. Gosh, it all started because DH was woken up by what he took as a collection phone call when he KNOWS we pay all of our bills on time - or should I now say - within the grace periods. And I wonder why there are still companies out there that don't do banking business electonically to make it easier for bill paying.

So pay off the loan ASAP or finance it with another company that you like more. Sorry, you chose to take out the loan with that company and you chose to pay late. If you don't like either component of that equation, then do something about it. Change the loan or pay on time.

cmarlin, we pay school taxes twice a year and town once. Our total tax is about $20,000. We live in a suburb near NYC. Top schools, ridiculous taxes. That's why we're selling the house.

Can anyone give the original poster information on how the buy here, pay here car dealerships opporate. Apparently OP has never heard the horror stories on how some of these opporate.

I believe loan companies like the one you chose do a lot of business with people who have iffy credit histories. This is not your average bank or credit union, but a company that has to deal with a lot of payment problems. Just because you may have a good credit history means nothing to them when you exhibit late payment behavior early in the loan period. They're trying to head off what may be a problem because you are demonstrating a pattern that they see all-too-frequently. You chose them and agreed to the terms. If you are going to keep trying to work the float with them, be prepared for more phone calls.

Sorry, I do not do float stuff. Not fair to all involved. As a retired banker, we dealt with this too much and the way banking has changed, they post checks first, then credits, which makes late charges. Also as to online banking, ask to see documation as to charges for do same, and if this was disclosed at the beginning, that is before papers were signed. Then check the disclosurser laws in your state.

I guess I'm more ignorant of loans than I thought after 30 years of financing. I didn't "choose" Citizen's Auto Finance - the Ford dealership chose them for us. (Better percentage than what Ford Motor Credit was offering) And what is interesting - this is for a $30k vehicle in which we put down $15k. DH's truck "went up" so we were forced to buy him a vehicle and since I really didn't "want" another car payment we decided to put down enough to make the payment palatible. For every other car purchase I've ever done in my life it's always been just trade with no (or very little) money down. That's why I was so taken aback at all of this. I've just never had any of my other car loan companies call. It isn't one of those side of the road deals. We've got plenty invested that we're not going to lose it. I guess I just thought all dealership car loans were the same.

annie-
No, they are not all the same. I shop around when I need a car loan, and I typically have a pre-approved loan in place -- before I walk onto the showroom floor -- that I can use if I don't like what the car dealer is offering. You will find different terms, different rates...and different practices, depending on where you look.

And by default, you did choose Citizen's Auto Finance when you accepted that offer from Ford. Ford makes money on that arrangement, so they are not inclined to point out that you can shop around.

If Ford rather than the dealership passed you to this place you need to review your credit scores. The dealership may never have sent your request to Ford Credit but if they did and you were directed to this company you have some serious credit issues that need to be looked at.

Dealers are paid fees by financing companies, similar to a broker fee on a mortgage loan. The dealership often chooses the financing company based on how much commission they will receive from the financing company for that particular deal.

It is always important to remember that a car dealership, or anyone else offering financing, is more interested in what they earn on the deal than in looking out for you.

My guess is that CAF offered a better rate because they are interested in improving the mix of prime/subprime paper on their balance sheet. But that is not to say that some other company might not have been offering a better rate for the customer. I suspect FMC is just not offering great rates right now because they don't want to grow their loan portfolio.