Track your billing cycle yourself

I have had numerous accounts paid to Monogram Bank of Georgia (Shaw Carpet, Lowes, Home Depot). I do not know what initiated your particular problem.

I keep a check list of my bills. It projects when the next payment is due, checked off when an account is paid. This helps ensure that a payment is not late, missed, or duplicated. A good thing about the Monogram account is that payment can be made and processed at the store. I have done so at LOWES and Home Depot, by requesting to make a payment at the store's customer service. You can use a statement or the number from your card. You will be given a receipt for payment received. This is much more convenient than accounts financed by other agencies i.e. Household Retail Services.

Confirm your mailing address. Make sure no one in your household is misplacing your mail or no one in your neighborhood is tampering with your mail. I use a post office box as my mailing address for exactly those reasons. It was amazing how much more mail I received after my son couldn't get his hands on it first.

When Statements from other finance companies were late, I called the customer service (telephone #'s from previous statements) regarding not receiving a statement. I was told that they 'outsource' their printing, the first statements were incorrect and had to be reprinted. It is possible that your LOWE'S statment had to be reprinted because information was printed on another home improvement line retailer's statement paper (only one possibility). However, each store account uses a different mailing address(PO Box, Drawer, Department) to receive and process payments.

Using a personal tracking system similar to my checklist, future problems can be avoided.