Grace Period

Dear Liz: Our mortgage is due on the first day of each month. A late fee is due if the payment is received by the mortgage company after the 16th. The mortgage company calls me if they have not received the payment by the fourth. I hung up on them the last time they did it. They followed up with a letter about getting debt crisis counseling (which didn't go over real well in my household). Are they allowed to harass me if they don't get their payment in four days? What about the grace period?

First time on the market in 24 years. Good bones. Needs TLC. Alas, this was not realty. It was reality, smacking me in the face. Several months after the end of a 20-year marriage to my college sweetheart, I was ready to date. I told my friends. The first call came as I was headed to a movie. "I have somebody for you," she said. "He's tall. " To her, this was a crucial attribute because I'm tall. Unusually tall. When I was confirmed in the sixth grade, I was taller than the bishop - with his hat. Truth be told, I wasn't concerned.

First time on the market in 24 years. Good bones. Needs TLC. Alas, this was not realty. It was reality, smacking me in the face. Several months after the end of a 20-year marriage to my college sweetheart, I was ready to date. I told my friends. The first call came as I was headed to a movie. "I have somebody for you," she said. "He's tall. " To her, this was a crucial attribute because I'm tall. Unusually tall. When I was confirmed in the sixth grade, I was taller than the bishop - with his hat. Truth be told, I wasn't concerned.

When Los Angeles County's inaugural toll lanes opened on the 110 Freeway late last year, Scott Sternad decided he could do without. "Nearly $1,000 a year?" said the 24-year-old engineering student, who commutes from Hermosa Beach to USC three times a week. "That's a lot of dinners and drinks. " But remaining in the free lanes has cost Sternad time. His commute now takes 15 minutes longer than it did before the carpool lanes were reconfigured, he says. That's not what was supposed to happen.

A recent Robert Bruss item ("Your Mortgage," Oct. 20) said that a buyer could save money by closing escrow at the end of the month. He couldn't possibly have thought that this was true. It only defers payment. The escrow holder prorates interest, taxes and insurance based on the close of escrow. The buyers pay a daily rate for the time that they own the property regardless of what day of the month it closes escrow. Although it's true that buyers will be required to bring in more prepaid interest for a mid-month closing, they would enjoy a longer grace period before their first payment was due. Therefore there is no savings to close at the end of the month.

Blue Shield of California has dropped plans to reduce the amount of time customers are given to pay their health insurance premiums before coverage is canceled. The decision came after I reported Wednesday that individual policyholders had been informed that Blue Shield was going to take away a key benefit even as millions of people grapple with the loss of jobs and homes and as lawmakers debate making the healthcare system more accessible. A number of news outlets picked up the story, prompting more customers to contact the company with questions about why Blue Shield was playing rough.

QUESTION: I live in West Covina, and I've always paid my rent on time, on or before the first day of the month, until this past month. Well, I paid the rent on the third of the month, but the property management company still gave me a three-day notice to pay the rent or move out. I told them that I was sure that there is a three-day grace period allowed by state law for late payment of rent. They said that I don't know what I'm talking about. Who's right?

Q: Is my perception correct that the payment cycle on my credit card bill is getting shorter and shorter? I generally pay the entire balance off each month so as not to accrue interest charges. But it just seems as though there is less time than ever between the time I get the bill and the date payment is due. Is my feeling accurate? And if it is, why is it happening? --K.G.S. * A: Your perception could be correct, although maybe you are noticing normal fluctuations in the billing cycle.

QUESTION: I rent a one-bedroom apartment on a month-to-month basis, and my rent is due on the first of the month. When I ran into financial problems last month, my landlord told me that I could have a few more days to come up with the money, and I paid my rent by the sixth of the month. My financial problems continued this month and forced me to pay my rent on the fourth. However, this time my landlord gave me a three-day notice to pay or quit when I was late paying my rent.

Starting today, telephone callers must use the new 510 area code to reach Bay Area cities east of here, Pacific Bell said. Using the new area code has been optional since Sept. 2, when it went into service for calls to Contra Costa and Alameda counties, including Berkeley and Oakland.

Gov. Jerry Brown's decision over the weekend to sign two bills -- AB 1447 and AB 1534 -- regulating Buy Here Pay Here used-car dealers is being hailed by consumer advocates as a huge and trailblazing victory over a controversial industry that some call predatory. So why are the dealers celebrating? Starting Jan. 1, Buy Here Pay Here lots, which provide their own in-house financing on cars rather than using third-party lenders, will be required to offer 30-day warranties on every vehicle they sell, place signs on autos indicating the fair-market value, increase disclosures about onboard tracking devices, and give customers more flexibility in making payments.

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued its first-ever regulations to curtail air pollution from natural gas wells that use a controversial production technique known as hydraulic fracturing, but gave the industry a three-year transition period to install technology to capture some of the worst pollutants. The new regulations would limit emissions of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which react with sunlight to create smog. They would also limit emissions of carcinogens and methane, the main component to natural gas and a potent contributor to climate change.  The rules are expected to affect the approximately 11,000 new wells annually that undergo hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and another 1,200 or so that are re-fracked to boost production.

Tamarack Lodge & Resort Cross Country Ski Center, 163 Twin Lakes Road, Mammoth Lakes; (760) 934-2442, http://www.tamarack?lodge.com/Ski_Center . Full-day snowshoe and pole rental, $27 for adults, $23 for children; afternoon rental, $23 and $19. Expansive, on-site areas for snowshoeing. ? Kittredge Sports, 3218 Main St., Mammoth Lakes; (760) 934-7566; http://www.kittredgesports.com . Full-day snowshoe rental, $14; half-day (five hours), $10. Rentals are by shoe size.

Dear Liz: Our mortgage is due on the first day of each month. A late fee is due if the payment is received by the mortgage company after the 16th. The mortgage company calls me if they have not received the payment by the fourth. I hung up on them the last time they did it. They followed up with a letter about getting debt crisis counseling (which didn't go over real well in my household). Are they allowed to harass me if they don't get their payment in four days? What about the grace period?

Dear Liz: I want to stop supporting the greedy banking industry by changing my checking account from a big bank to my local credit union. But I'm worried I will have to give up services I like, such as online banking and free bill payment. What will I give up if I use a credit union? Answer: You may not have to give up anything, and you may gain a few things, depending on how you bank. Credit unions are member-owned, which means they don't have to worry about making profits for shareholders.

Foreclosure activity in California took a steep dive in December, a report shows, but the decline had more to do with holiday forbearance than economic improvement. Notices of default dropped 17.5% compared with November, according to the report by ForeclosureRadar.com. The number of homes seized by lenders dropped 12%, and the number of homes sold to third parties declined 28.9%. The drop in foreclosures appears to reflect an easing in activity by banks and other lenders hoping to avoid delivering disheartening news to troubled buyers and shutting people out of their homes during the holiday season, the website said.

Taxpayers who fail to file a new W-4 tax-withholding form by midnight Monday will miss out on the Internal Revenue Service's grace period from penalties. Wage-earners have until Oct. 1 to file a 1987 W-4 tax-withholding form, but, if they do so by midnight Monday, they will not be penalized by the IRS if they fail to prepay at least 90% of their tax bill, an IRS spokesman said. Those who file after June 1 but before Oct.

Blue Shield of California has dropped plans to reduce the amount of time customers are given to pay their health insurance premiums before coverage is canceled. The decision came after I reported Wednesday that individual policyholders had been informed that Blue Shield was going to take away a key benefit even as millions of people grapple with the loss of jobs and homes and as lawmakers debate making the healthcare system more accessible. A number of news outlets picked up the story, prompting more customers to contact the company with questions about why Blue Shield was playing rough.

Amid a national debate on how to make the healthcare system friendlier and more accessible, and as millions of people grapple with the loss of jobs and homes, what does insurance heavyweight Blue Shield of California do? It decides to take a key benefit away. The company has notified individual policyholders that their coverage could be immediately dropped if they miss a single payment -- or so it seems. Blue Shield says in a letter to customers that they can reapply for insurance, but with potentially higher premiums and stricter conditions.