Postmarking and due dates for bills?

Walking Man

Walking Man

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Do bills count as Gadgets and/or gear?
Anyhow...... Please move to correct forum if I'm in the wrong place. Thanks.
I am curious as to whether there is a standard law for postmarking. Does a postmark always count as the date of payment or does it have to arrive to the utility or financial institution before the due date? I saw some state laws when I did a Google search, but nothing definite. BTW... I'm in Ohio, if it makes a difference. Thanks.
 
I always count on payments being lost/ delayed somewhere. Therefore I always pay online.
Mike
 
Walking Man, postmarks are a Federal function. Any State or private enterprise agreeing to accept them as evidence of timely submission of documents or payment is their call.

As far as the Postal Service is concerned, postmarks are a way for the Service to track performance, and a convenience to our customers, but we are not obligated to provide them, and if a letter gets a smeared or missing mark, tough luck.
 
Usually a contract with a deadline says payment must be received by that date, but occasionally one says payment must be postmarked by that date. Read the fine print -- if it gives a deadline it will say what must be done by that deadline. As Esav already explained there may not be a postmark.
 
Just doing some wishful thinking. I'm probably screwed. I send the penalty fee along with the payment just in case. If I get lucky, I'll get it back in the balance next month.
 
I worked in the bill processing department for a local utility during their conversion form one company to another... Be aware that under some circumstances, bills may not all be processed the day they are recieved, and none of them are marked in any way when they are recieved. The only date that matters is the date the money is actually accredited to your account...

Now, I do believe there has been some sort of regulation proposed or passed that requires payments to be processed in as rapid a means as possible... but, humans can only do so much, and if half the staff calls in sick... who knows how long it could be between reciept and processing....

And postmarks only tell when an envelope passed a certain point in the postal system; not necessarily the day it was recieved at it's destination...
 
And postmarks only tell when an envelope passed a certain point in the postal system; not necessarily the day it was recieved at it's destination...
Click to expand...
Exactly. We collected mail during the day and sent it through the machines in the evening to postmark it. THEN it would be sorted by destination and sent off around the country and around the world.It would only be delivered the next day in the local area.

There is a way for a company to tell when mail arrived, no matter how long it takes for them to process it. As an example, the Postal Service delivers tax returns to the IRS and state agencies in sacks. Each sack can be dated on the label and the agency can hold it aside as having arrived on time, pending processing.

Joeshredd is right, though, that many businesses don't care when you got your payment to them. They only care when they get it into their account.
 
Also---writing your acct number in the memo section will speed things considerably---without it-the check is set aside and they come back to it at their convenience---meanwhile you are later and later.
 
This brings up an isssue I see pretty often. At our utility, the night deposit box is emptied as close to 8:00 am as possible. Many times, I see people sitting in the drive-through, literally 40 ft away, waiting for the window to open (8am). Most of the time, they're already late a day, and if they wait on the drive-thru they're going to be credited as paying that day. If you drop in the night deposit even at 7:59am, it's credited as arriving the day before (you could have put it in any time since the previous days' emptying, at 8am). However, you still can't explain that to some people... Hey, I was just trying to save them a late fee taking the time to go explain it...
 
If you are late with money lenders, such as a mortgage, you are usually pretty screwed. However if it is just a utility, and only a day late, for example, sometimes a polite phone call will do wonders to make the penalty magically disappear. Be polite but go around and around a few circuits and sometimes "poof" penalty all gone.
 
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