Borrowing from one lender or credit card to pay another. The bottom line today for companies who issue credit cards to consumers is to make sure they profit from the user of their card. It's not on their agenda to keep you from spending more than you should, or to encourage you to pay low rates instead of high ones, or to teach you to avoid the behavior that will cause you to pay more than you have to. Learn to be similarly selfish, to ensure that you keep your good credit. At one time, consumers had a month to make a payment.
Some bills arrive a week or more after their closing date and within two weeks of their due dates.
With stories of credit card issuers taking as long as a week to post a payment, you pretty much have to open the bill when it comes in, write your check and hustle over to the post office. A national credit research company has reported that credit card issuers are checking credit reports monthly and slapping punitive rates on customers who fall behind on any of their cards. This research company found that several major card issuers have indicated they may bump interest rates as high as 23.9 percent for customers who are 30 days or more overdue on any card payments. By the way, fall behind on a department store card and you'll pay more on your credit cards, too. Not only does this double your annual interest rate, it may also compound it indefinitely if you carry a balance on the card.