Author Topic: Late Payment crushed my credit score, what do I do  (Read 2037 times)

hgjjgkj

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Late Payment crushed my credit score, what do I do
« on: January 25, 2019, 10:25:33 AM »
I had a late payment on a $1.13 charge for a rental movie on an Amazon card. It was through one of their loyalty cards and in my opinion, supported by the fact I have never before had a late payment, wasn't notified of the charge.

Amazon has a habit of making their credit cards the default payment when you go to buy, so I bought something and then never saw the charge and didnt get an email about payment being due. Not this hit on my credit dropped my score 50 points. I think this is bs as I am a churner and have about a dozen credit cards so this is a infinitesimally small part of my total credit.  Once I found out this happened, I immediately paid it, but I found out by watching the notification on my credit report. Is there anything that can be done?

Catbert

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Re: Late Payment crushed my credit score, what do I do
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2019, 11:10:02 AM »
For the future set up all your  credit cards to make minimum payment automatically. 

You could try contacting the credit card company and throwing yourself on their mercy in hopes that they'll remove the charge.  Otherwise the hit to you credit score will slowing disappear.

WhiteTrashCash

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Re: Late Payment crushed my credit score, what do I do
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2019, 11:46:26 AM »
Write a letter -- a physical letter on paper -- and send it to your credit card company asking for a goodwill adjustment to remove the late payment from your credit reports. In your letter, mention the length of time you've been their customer and your long record of on-time payments, talk about how much you appreciate their service and being their customer, be contrite about being late on the one payment and talk about how it will never happen again, and thank them profusely for considering your request. If they do not remove the late and send you a form letter saying "it's our policy blah blah blah", then write another letter and another until the letter gets to the right person who can and will remove the late.

I did this successfully with two credit cards when I started repairing my credit. It works. I started out with a score of 330 at the start of repairs and I just reached 803.

Annie101

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Re: Late Payment crushed my credit score, what do I do
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2019, 09:14:23 AM »
 You can definitely try calling and asking them to remove the late fee. I think they will do this the first time it happens. However,  I don't think it matters unless you are trying to buy a house or something in the near future.   I don't worry about my credit score because I don't use credit very often.

DreamFIRE

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Re: Late Payment crushed my credit score, what do I do
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2019, 10:10:33 AM »

I'm curious how late the payment was actually made.  Sometime in the last couple years, I got an email the day after the due date that I didn't make a payment on a CC, but I paid it immediately on receiving the email, which was a day late, maybe two days late due to the processing delay of the online payment.  I was concerned there might be a ding on my credit report/score, but nothing ever showed as being a late payment nor was there any drop in my credit score, still up around 840.

hgjjgkj

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Re: Late Payment crushed my credit score, what do I do
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2019, 11:15:41 AM »
I think it was a solid month after maybe 2. It was very strange. My credit score was dipping on Mint and I had no clue why, then one month after my on time payments went from 100% too 99% and it told finally me why. To give additional perspective I had to create an online account just to pay this bill, thats how little i use the card. I just applied for the card over black friday to get an Amazon GC

LightStache

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Re: Late Payment crushed my credit score, what do I do
« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2019, 12:53:52 PM »
I had this happen once years ago. On a card I didn't use, I made a $500 purchase and then returned it within the billing cycle. Even though my balance was zero, the statement still showed a minimum payment that I didn't think to look for. When I called, the card company said that they would either waive the fees/finance charges (maybe $10) OR report to the bureaus as an on-time payment. I chose the latter without hesitation and closed the card on the same call. I'm guessing you could get the same, considering the circumstances and such a small amount.