Late Payment for My Gas Bill

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2003-08-25 20:10 · Life

I have to show the expression of :-( Sadly Smiley when I became aware that I have to pay 196 RMB as late payment fine for the 280 RMB gas fee for December 2002. That is the bill of half year ago. I was amazed by myself that I can delay paying a bill for over half a year. How bad memory do I have.

I am a very careless person in my pesonal life. I often forget to pay the bills. To be honest, I don’t care most of the bills like water, electricity, gas since the amounts are small. The only bill I care very much is the telephone bill, which was always higher than I expected. Especially the ADSL monthly fee of 150 RMB (combined with Tian Yi Tong - the wireless service) drove me crazy. It is one of the most expensive household fee I have to pay.

I have never paid bill or heard of bill before I come to Shanghai. Yes. It is true. In a lot of cities in China before, the household fee was deducted from the salary directly, as my parents’ company did. It sounds strange but it was true before. People live in the house assigned by the company (or unit, in Chinglish). Serveral family share the same electricity meter and people don’t have bill, since the company will pay the electricity department of the city and deduce the distributed amont the families from their salary….

On Late Payment will Doom You

The headline of MSN.com frightened me.

Image coutersy of MSN.com

It claimed that

One late payment can doom you

Credit-card companies and insurers are combing your records for any reason to justify a rate increase. Just a single late payment or over-limit charge could ripple through all your unrelated accounts.

Reading the article made me get aware of the importance of paying bill in time. Will a late payment doom me? If so, how about a 8-month late payment? Will it doom me twice?

Actually, it is the fact of the credit system. Just as I never heard of bill before, I seldom hear about credit in last year. However, from the begining of this year, the city of Shanghai are working on the credit system. They begin to gather bank account information, late payment into the central credit system, just as that in other countries. This is a very big step forward for the city. Poor me. How about my credit now? Will it be of value zero? :-( again.

5 Comments
Don't you need pay the "Estate Management Fee"???It is the highest fee for my every month.And it made me crazy too because I must remember to pay it in time every month.Its amount is about 200 RMB and will be higher than 500RMB in winter for the heat fee,including the Nature Gas and Water fee.

I donot need to pay the telphone,my company paid it.

BTW:

I think 150 RMB is not a large number in Shanghai/
— Toufu · 2003-08-25 21:29
Well. The Estate Management Fee is also a big expense, but it is fixed, unlike telephone bill, which goes up and down...
— Jian Shuo Wang · 2003-08-26 09:11
Oh, busy boy, not poor boy, do not worry about that triffle. Why don't you use defined payment account system in postoffice or bank? What you only should do is to deposit enough money to that account from which all of utilities is paid off autimatically when they happen. And the check bill is delivered every month. I am not sure if telephone bill is included or not. Try it.
— Xu · 2003-08-26 12:41
Xu,This service would be banned since this Sep. 1st
— Toufu · 2003-08-26 20:59
When do they cut you off? I been a bit overbusy the last little while and v. overdue with my bills. There's no time this week to go to the offices (gas and telephone) to pay.
— mary · 2005-05-31 10:10