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In recent years, the amount of profit that credit card companies are earning from the payment of credit card late fees has reached record levels.  As more and more people are finding that their payment is reaching the credit card company late, credit card companies keep increasing the amount of the fee and raking in more and more money each month.  Credit card fees continue to be a large part of many people’s monthly budgets and late fees add additional charges to the credit card, making it harder to pay off. 

How Much Are The Fees?
In the last decade, the amount charged for credit card late fees have increased by a significant amount.  Before, the penalty for paying your credit card bill late may have been $10, which was added to the individual’s next credit card statement.  Today, the fee for a late payment on your credit card account is nearly $40 at every lender.   If your payments are late on more than one credit card, you will be paying the credit card companies a large amount of money in fees that you are getting no benefit from, almost like throwing money into a trash can.

Ways To Avoid The Fees
There are many ways to take steps to avoid having to pay a late fee to the credit card company.  One of the easiest ways to prevent a late fee from being charged to your account is to pay your credit card bill as soon as it arrives in the mail.  By being proactive and not waiting until the last minute to make a payment on your credit card bill, you make sure that paying the bill does not slip your mind, causing the payment to be mailed off late and incurring a late fee.

Another good method to think about is to create additional reminders of the credit card payment due date that you will see on a regular basis to alert you that the date the payment will need to be made is coming near.  Excellent reminders would be a note on your calendar or an alarm on your PDA alerting you of the day you will need to make your credit card payment and will remind you to have enough money in your checking account to cover the payment that needs to be made. 

If your regular method of paying your credit card bill is mailing in your payment and you miss mailing the payment off on the correct day, there are typically other methods available to make the payment quickly so that you do not miss making the payment on time.  Many credit card companies have multiple ways for their customers to make their payments and some can be very useful.  These methods of paying your bill credit the money to your credit card account either instantly or on the next business day so the payment can be made near the due date without worrying about the payment arriving late.

Many people choose to pay their credit card payment by telephone, which involves talking to a customer service representative and giving them personal bank account information.   This allows the representative to deduct the payment from the bank account and credit the payment to your account immediately.  Other people make their payment on the website of the credit card company.  Credit card late fees account for a large percentage of the addition money people pay to credit card companies each year, but there are ways that you can use to avoid becoming part of the trend.