finger hut fingerhut web bank i have an account with fingerhut and i pay every month on time well dont pay early they credited it to that month saint cloud Minnesota

 Your account with them is considered an Open Ended Account(Credit Card).  As such they are required by law to post the payment in the period they receive it in.

So if your payment was received after the due date of the current billing cycle but before the closing date..the payment will still be applied to that period and you will still owe a payment in the next cycle.  Had they "held" your payment to the next payment period or even just applying it to the next period they would actually be violating the Fair Credit Billing Act. 

But there is absolutly no reason you should have been late.  Your statement is also sent out 21 days in advance and unless you were away for Labor Day for 21 days, you would have seen the statement before the due date.  Now, if you "assumed" that the minimum payment it showed didn't apply to you....well there was your mistake.

Also you did NOT overpay..you are just paying back what you previously borrowed.  If you can take anything good from this is that because it was applied to the previous period, your balance was lower and you had a reduction in the interest you would have had to pay.   

Oh and yes this applies to ALL credit cards.