If you pay the late fee on a credit card can they report it 30 days
late even though you paid the late fee, and if they can't report it
late I need the law that proves it. There might even be a state law in
florida that protects me if so what is it. Give me something whether
it's state or federal.

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Request for Question Clarification by siliconsamurai-ga on 01 Mar 2005 11:12 PST

Your local laws don't affect most credit card contracts.

This is for the same reason they can charge what would be usurious
interest rates. If you look at your credit card or statement I bet
you?ll see the word National or N.A. after the bank name, that makes
them exempt from most consumer laws.

It also depends on the state the bank is chartered in, for example,
CitiBank moved it?s credit card operation to South Dakota not because
of the balmy weather.

If you would consider this sort of information an answer, let me know
and I will post details.

Just my comment here, I read over a few of my own credit card
policies, and according to the agreement I signed, if payment is not
made by due date, an automatic late fee applies and the company has
the right to report the late payment to credit reporting agencies. My
understanding is that it is still late even if you pay them their late
charges.

Dude, the late fee is not in lieu of reporting you.  They report you
whether or not you pay a late fee.  You need to be more careful with
your bills.

When you are late with a payment, you don't get your choice of a
variety of penalties from which to pick and choose.  The penalties are
the late fee plus they can report it to the credit bureaus, not one or
the other.

I view the late fee as being similar to a fine for a traffic
violation. You pay, but that doesn't take the offense off your record.

BOOOO ugly credit card policies!

I sent a letter to my congressman several months ago about some of the
credit card policies/laws that should definately be changed.  He gave
me a call saying that he loved a couple of my ideas on how to change
them and would like to meet with me about them.  Unfortunately that
call was about 3 weeks ago and I've had no word since... I'm sure he's
a busy man, but I don't expect anything more to come of this even if
it's just his business keeping him away.
 
Two of the issues he mentioned specifically in our phone conversation
were "interest rate shopping" (where creditors can relocate to a new
state in order to charge the interest rates from the new state to
every state in the US) and changing "fixed rates" (currently creditors
can change "fixed rates" without any real reason).  I mentioned
several other policies in the letter and gave suggestions for
improving all of them, but alas breaking into our law system to get
things changed is a very difficult process that I don't think I can
do.