Target, Target National Bank Target preys on customers who pay early Minneapolis, Minnesota

All of the reasons in the world doesn't change the fact this is your fault.  If your bill was due on Feb. 27th, it needed to be in the mail much more than one day in advance; postmarkings do not count when making credit card payments.  It only matters when the payment arrives to the company.  No change in the laws would have saved you.  The only way you could have been saved is if you setup your payment to occur through an ACH debit 2 days before.

All of the fees (and the default interest rate...I would add) are all a part of the agreement you signed when you agreed to possess and use the card.  If you don't want to use a credit card, the choice certainly is yours.  However, don't use a credit card and then complain about the terms and conditions you agreed to when you use the card.

It sounds like you planned to pay your March payment ahead of schedule. However it also sounds like you paid the payment before the March statement dropped. When was the actual closing date for February? the 27?

If you paid before the statement dropped, then you were not making the March payment. You were making a larger Feb payment. When you pay revolving balances the statement date is critical as it determines in which period the payment will be applied. If you paid the payment before the statement dropped, and made no other March payment, then they were right to charge you a late fee for March because you did not make the March payment. The only way that this would have worked for you is if you had paid the entire balance due prior to the statement dropping, then there would have been no late March payment as no payment would have been due. 

You can easily pay installment loans ahead. But revolving loans (like the Target card) have a specific time period in which to pay them. If you pay them too early, you only increase the amount toward the balance paid for the prior period. It is a shame that you missed the March pay period by 2 days, especially since you thought you were paying early. 

SUGGESTION:  Check your balances online at least twice a month on each of your credit accounts. You will then know the amounts due and can check to see if the payments were applied correctly and timely. If you had done that during March, you would have seen that the payment was not applied to your March balance, but your Feb balance and you could have corrected it prior to the March due date.  

Why do some people have so much trouble with simple concepts of how Credit Cards work.

With Credit Cards there is no such thing as "paying early".  Creditors have no idea what you "intended" for the payment.  When they receive a payment, the date it clears your bank is meaningless, they will post it.  Because if they didn't post it right away they would collect additional interest, and then they would have people accusing them of holding funds just to make more money in interest.

Health Care costs, cut back at work, or other financial issues are just as meaningless when it comes to posting to the account.

When you made the payment before the closing date it gets posted to that month.  So when they send the bill out you will still owe a payment for the next month.  There is NO reason you should have any late fees because you would have received the March bill, noticed the payment you made was posted in the previous month, and that they were still showing a payment due.  
 
Oh and this is how EVERY credit card works.