Let me ask a question of you all this Merry Yuletide.

How many of you festive money spenders look at the settlement date of your credit cards on a regular basis?

I suspect that many of you (myself included) have an idea of the approximate date that payment covering the balance or part there of has to be made so as not to incur the "give us even more money" wrath of the card company.

In which case may I suggest that you pay careful attention at this particular time of year.

The reason being that, despite what I have been assured by 3 card companies never happens has occurred once again.

And that is a sudden shift toward the beginning of the month of the payment date.

It will probably return to normal come February next year but it's worthwhile checking as, yet again two of my cards have taken a several day jump forward.

One has moved forward by just 2 day but one has jumped by 5 days.

This is not an uncommon event in my experience and led, several years back to my ceasing to use Barclaycard. At that time they moved my settlement date from the normal 11th of the months to the 2nd of the month. Consequently I missed my payment and got hit with an excess charge.

As you all realise, as is SOOOO unusual for me, I kicked up a right stink ! On finding they'd done the same trick to several of my associates I threatened them with the banking ombudsman and suddenly my excess charge was dropped as "a goodwill gesture".

So take a close look at your credit card statement and, mentioning no names, take an especially close look if your card is with MBNA-BMI or HSBC