I wonder if anyone could advise me...... pretty please ?

We received our final UK credit card bills last week, and I've posted our payment slips with the cheques back to the UK with insufficient postage on (ie Swiss A prioritaire rather than Europe Zone 1 - I was in a tearing hurry to get them posted and looked up the wrong column of the Living & Working in Switz. book).

Has anyone any idea what will happen - will they get delivered at all, will they get sent back to me, will I get a bad credit rating for not getting the payment made in time etc. Oh the joys of learning how to live abroad......

they should be delivered - with extra cost to the recipient. And maybe slowly.

Assuming that you put a 1 franc stamp on, and the letter weighs less than 20g, you only underpaid by 20 rappen.

As Lob says, it will get there.....eventually.

The Swiss post will proceed it as normal and in a week or two they'll put a card in your letterbox. They'll beg you to put the difference + -.50 Fr. on the card in stamps and to post it.

Phone the companies involved and advise them of the situation. If they hold up the postage, there may be some sort of rubber stamp saying 'postage due' or something on there to prove your point.

relax dont worry, dont think thgey got the time or resources on the U.k. side to check this, never heard of mail being sent back because of stamps not being right, would just do nothing .

Dont worry be happy

Thanks everyone for your advice, much appreciated. Next time I shall aim for more haste and less speed.....

I wish I was as responsible as you

Don't worry, it won't last long

This happened to a friend of mine. The post will go via the international sorting office in Bern where enquiries will be made that tend to take approx. 2.5 weeks to clear.

You see, because you live abroad everything is different. In England they would just charge the recipient, whereas "abroad" they keep a register of stamp offenders called the "Zweiseitiger Briefmarken Lecker" register, which can ultimate lead to having your B-Permit revoked.

Please be more careful next time, you are giving us foreigners a bad rap.

H

<stupid question> Can you pay the bills online now if you're worried about the credit ratings </stupid quesion>

Being late with a payment won't give you a bad credit rating- they just charge you for not paying in time and it's usually about £12 for a delayed payment. Don't panic ! They're not bothered - they've just got an extra few quid !

Yes, late payment isn't a problem as long as it's paid before the next month's statement comes in, just incurs an extra fee and of course more interest for the lender.

However, missing a credit card payment will result in a credit black mark but not one of any great long-term severity as long as the debt is made good and not left outstanding.

Sorry, Gav, but missing one payment does not get you a black mark on any credit reference agency - it's not worth the company's money to register it . I've been out of banking for quite a while, so I checked with someone in the know. The easiest thing to do if you think you are going to miss making payments is to do a direct debit for the minimum amount and pay the balance off during the month if you wish. Doing it over the internet is also a lot easier, but some don't feel it's secure.

Thank you all for your extremely helpful replies (especially Hugh)

I don't know whether I just got lucky, but I had to ring the bank on Friday about something else, and the cheques had arrived in the UK and had been cashed from the account that day. I posted them (with duff postage) on Monday.

So if anyone else does the same, the post did seem to get processed as if it had been fully paid, and I'll wait to see if I get the summons to pay the difference in stamps.