Depending on how long you've had a card/account and what your history is like, they're usually cool about it. I once went on vacation for like 12 days and missed like 3 credit card payments because they were all while I was on vacation. I was a schmuck and forgot to pay them before I left. When I got back, I called them all and each of them agreed to remove the $39 late fees because I had an excellent history of always paying my bills in full or nearly in full for a long time. Chase is generally cool about stuff like that, as is Discover.