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I had always paid credit card bills manually, sort of to force myself to keep an eye on things, actively. But finally I decided to set up automatic payments (for the minimum payment), as I had forgotten to pay a few times due to traveling or being busy.

If I make a manual payment earlier than the date of the automatic payment, does my automatic payment become zero? Provided I paid at least the minimum payment of course.

It seems intuitive, and I expect this to be the case, but the language is that the automatic payment will pay the minimum amount due, which, is a figure printed on my statement almost 30 days beforehand. I can't find any clear language stating that the automatic payment will pay the minimum amount due at the time of the automatic payment, i.e. accounting for manual payments, as opposed to the statement version.

Andrew Cheong
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1 Answers1

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This varies from Bank to Bank depending on the software they use.

Most banks are moving towards a system where they would on the payment due date see if there is "Automatic Payment" set-up. If set-up for full amount, they would take what is left upaid. Even after making full payments leaving few cents; the Automatic Payment would take those few cents. Similarly for "Minimum Payments", it would figure out if there were any manual payments and not take Minimum Payments.

So there is no way of telling for sure how the system behaves. Ideally the people at Bank's call centre should be able to answer, in reality more often they themselves may not know.

More importantly even if they take additional payment, it would get adjusted in the next cycle. So apart from small cash flow issue, it shouldn't really matter.

Dheer
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