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EYE AR DUM
Jan. 9th, 2010 04:18 pmSo it happens that just the other day I was talking with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
metalepticfit about how I keep a spreadsheet for my financials because it's important to me that I not miss bill payments and junk like that. Mostly I worry about credit cards, because they have this unfriendly way of jacking up your interest rates when you miss payments, and because I live by such slim margins these days, I can't be havin' that. So I keep careful track of my bills and payments and try very hard to keep on top of this stuff.
Imagine my surprise today, then, when one of my credit card bills came and informed me that my account was past due. What? Bear is driving? How can this be! My set of books, of course, said that all was well. But a quick review of my bank account confirmed that, indeed, no payment had been debited from my account. Could I have possibly marked the account as paid in my ledger and not have actually made the payment?
After some investigation, it turns out...yes and no.
Most places I use, when I'm making an online payment, default the payment to be scheduled for the next possible day it can be made, usually the same day or the next business day. This place, however, defaults the payment date to when the payment is actually due, which is in the following month. I like to have my payments go through as soon as I can, though, so I always change the default to the next business day. Last month's payment was no different.
Except it was.
The statement came due around this time last month, in December. The payment was due early the next month, in January. As I always do, I set up the payment and then changed the default date from the next month to the current month, from January to December. But I didn't change the year. So I ended up accidentally scheduling last month's payment for December of 2010. This was, you'd expect, somewhat past the actual due date. *sigh* Online form completion FAIL.
So I guess this is the 21st century version of writing the wrong date on your check after New Years. Double-check those dates, everybody!
metalepticfit about how I keep a spreadsheet for my financials because it's important to me that I not miss bill payments and junk like that. Mostly I worry about credit cards, because they have this unfriendly way of jacking up your interest rates when you miss payments, and because I live by such slim margins these days, I can't be havin' that. So I keep careful track of my bills and payments and try very hard to keep on top of this stuff.Imagine my surprise today, then, when one of my credit card bills came and informed me that my account was past due. What? Bear is driving? How can this be! My set of books, of course, said that all was well. But a quick review of my bank account confirmed that, indeed, no payment had been debited from my account. Could I have possibly marked the account as paid in my ledger and not have actually made the payment?
After some investigation, it turns out...yes and no.
Most places I use, when I'm making an online payment, default the payment to be scheduled for the next possible day it can be made, usually the same day or the next business day. This place, however, defaults the payment date to when the payment is actually due, which is in the following month. I like to have my payments go through as soon as I can, though, so I always change the default to the next business day. Last month's payment was no different.
Except it was.
The statement came due around this time last month, in December. The payment was due early the next month, in January. As I always do, I set up the payment and then changed the default date from the next month to the current month, from January to December. But I didn't change the year. So I ended up accidentally scheduling last month's payment for December of 2010. This was, you'd expect, somewhat past the actual due date. *sigh* Online form completion FAIL.
So I guess this is the 21st century version of writing the wrong date on your check after New Years. Double-check those dates, everybody!