Washington Business Daily

Payments!?!?

Is car payment due at the end of the month or at the begging? I need to know if the payments for the follwing would be due at the begining of the month cell phone car insurance car payment apartment rent cable internet I really need help it's for an economics project.

Public Comments

1. As far as I know, it depends on the billing cycle of the supplier of service. Most of my payments are due on the 15th of the month following. I'd ring around some of the service providers (banks, phone/electric companies, cable, etc.) in your area and see if there are any trends.
2. A car payment is usually due at the beginning of a "month" with "month" being any monthly period starting on some day. (Even if due at the end of a month, one can think of it as due at the start of the next, just sliding the scale so to speak. This applies to all similar payments. For "similar," note the difference with some of the others.) Car insurance and apartment rent is usually due at the beginning of the period covered. Cell phone, cable, and internet services are usually due at the end of monthly periods, but it's a little more complicated than that. They often have two basic components to them: a monthly charge for any service at all, and for recurring services like Caller ID on a phone bill and charges for services that vary based on usage like minutes used or pay-per-view movies. The first type is usually paid for the month coming up in the same bill on which you pay for the usage type items for the previous month. With the previous things said, there is also usually a (sometimes only sort of) reasonable period for coming to terms with the items on the bill (you might dispute some, or you might choke on some) and arranging and sending payment. So sometimes the payments can seem like they are a month behind when they are for the month ahead. But a careful look at the facts of each will usually show them following the above.