Is there any way to guesstimate this? I need to get a letter to KY by the 26th, and I’m in PA on the 23. Will it make it in time?
Regular old first class mail is usually 2 to 3 days, but it’s not guaranteed. You could use Express Mail if it’s really important.
My gut feeling is that your letter has about an 80% chance of getting there on time — so I guess the question is whether that risk, combined with the “need” in your question, is big enough to spring for Priority Mail or Express Mail. If you do end up using first-class mail, make sure that you’ve got your address in proper USPS format (run it through the ZIP code lookup), and take it to as large a post office as you can reasonably get to as early in the day as you can (to be sure that it’s collected and moved into the system promptly.)
Regular old mailbox is iffy, eh? And it’s my car payment, so punctuality is a good thing. sigh
As a note for UPS their website will give you a good estimate of how long it will take for a package to get from point A to point B.
Making punctual car payments is good but the consequences of it not making it on time are probably nill to minor. Late payments of that type don’t affect your credit score at all until they are 30 or more days late so that isn’t an issue. You may just have to pay a small late fee (or maybe not if even that) and I seriously doubt they will take your car back if it is a day or two late.
Is there an option to pay online via credit card or electronic funds transfer? (Aside from being faster, you’d save the cost of a stamp.)
We don’t know where you live.
If you live deep in rural country and it happens to rain hard that day the postal person may get your letter back to the post office too late to make it onto the truck to the big city. So it’ll sit in your rural country post office an extra day.
If you live in the 'burbs or a big city this won’t be an issue. Still, it’s not uncommon that the last truck to the airport leaves the main post office sort center at 430 or 5 pm. If your letter has to go through 3 post offices to get to your nearest metro sort center that could take an extra day.
Bottom line: The closer to the metro sort center you put your letter into the mail system & the earlier in the day you do it, the less the likelihood it’ll sit an extra day.
It’d also matter how rural your destination address is, but knowing it’s a car payment processing place they probably are located close to a sort center and have decently quick mail service.
And echoing what **Stranger **said - the odds on a 1-day late car payment making any difference is very low. Assuming this is the first time you’ve done this. If they’re 1 day away from ordering a repo, missing *that *deadline by a day could be the end of your car.
All in all, the better answers come when we have more facts than just May 23, May 26, KY & PA.
Also, see if they’ll take a payment over the phone using a credit or debit card. Alternatively if it’s a bank with branches in both Pennsylvania and Kentucky, they may accept a payment at a local branch. That’s what I did when I moved from Denver to Tucson. My car loan was with Bank One (now Chase) and I could make my payment right at a Tucson branch of Bank One.
Their website has been unreliable at times. And I live in central PA.
You should also be aware that for payments received by mail, even if it arrives at their office on the due date, it could still take up to 10 days to work its way through the internal systems of the company and be credited to your account. Usually this will be indicated somewhere in the fine print on your bill. If you pay by credit card or some other electronic method, it will be credited the same day.
And they don’t have a telephone number where you could call them??
IME, calling creditors when you’re going to be late by a day or two is a good thing, so follow up on this. I’ve never had a creditor punish me with fees (or heightened interest rates) when I’ve called ahead of time. Just call and be friendly, say you’re mailing the check today but are concerned that it could arrive late. They’ll probably just add a notation to your account and wish you a nice day.
There’s a very high chance – at least 80% – that a domestic first class letter mailed on a given day will reach its destination anywhere in the country within three postal working days.
But it’s not guaranteed. So if it’s something time critical I would spend the money to go with a guaranteed service, like Express Mail.
This URL gives their official estimates:
http://postcalc.usps.com/
Plug in the day you mail the product, the ZIP, parcel details and they’ll give you an estimate that is right over 95% of the time.