<prompt> Human: I use credit cards for just about everything. I pay my statement balance each month. Over the years I forget every now and then to pay the bill. Not often, maybe once every two years or so. However, I have never once paid a late fee or interest on a missed payment. If you find yourself in this situation, like I just did again a moment ago, pick up the phone and call the credit card company. Now, this will only work if it is infrequent and you have a good history of payment, but you very well may save yourself some money. Dont lie, just be honest. I tell the customer service rep, politely, that I accidentally missed my payment but want to settle it now. Then I ask if we can waive the penalties, and they tell me theyll check. I have them make the payment over the phone, then they look into fixing the fees, and voila, its approved and I get off without paying any penalty. This isnt a 100 sure thing, but it certainly cant hurt to try. Story time: One time I missed the payment, paid online, late fee and all, and then the bill for the next month came, with an interest charge. I didnt expect this since I wasnt really familiar with how carrying a CC balance works due to always paying it off monthly. Upon seeing this I called the company, told them the same thing I said to do above was honest, asked them to look at my history, etc, and asked if we could fix the late fee that I had already paid, as well as the interest. Sure enough, not only did they refund the late fee I had paid previously, but they also canceled the interest charge. Again, YMMV. I have good credit and payment history, so if you pay late regularly or carry a balance they likely wont be as willing to do you any favors. However, if youre in good standing with your CC company, before you accept paying for a mistake, give the company a call and see if they can help you. A five minute call just saved me 50 plus interest, as it has multiple times in the past.  <response>: Your payment history does play a big role when it comes to fee waivers. Also your overall relationship with the bank multiple accounts, how long youve been with them etc helps. Different CC issuers have different fee guidelines that have to be followed so experiences may vary. Either way, it doesnt hurt to ask. 