Some companies and organizations do not view someone who fulfills an obligation within a grace period any differently from someone who does so before the original deadline.
Thus a subject who is past due, but who meets the obligation within the grace period, receives equal treatment and no penalty or negative reputation.
For example, many utility companies will charge a small late fee for those who do not pay their bill by the stated due date.
However, habitual procrastinators may come to view the grace period as the actual deadline, and if, due to unforeseen circumstances, they are occasionally late beyond that, they might complain about the applied penalty.
[5] In the United States, almost all credit cards offer a grace period on purchase transactions.