Help...BoA ruined credit!

[Anonymous]

My husband and I have been considering buying our first house for a few months now. We decided to check his credit score before we were serious about applying for pre-approval. We were horrified when we found six 30 day delinquencies on his Bank of America credit card from February to July. My husband had called Bank of America back in February to negotiate lowering his interest rate because although he was paying more than the minimum each month it was nowhere near being paid down. He successfully had the interest rate lowered and was asked to pay a balance of $137 to "bring it to current". Since February he has paid more than the minimum balance each month and we have bank statements showing our payments. We immediately called Bank of America when we found these delinquencies and they are arguing that our account was $600 past due in February and the payments we've been making each month since were to pay that off, not the card. We informed Bank of America that we weren't told this. We were told the $137 would bring the account to current, not a payment of $600. The representative from Bank of America told us "she isn't privy to our prior conversations but our account is current now so there shouldn't be any problems". Our ruined credit is a problem! I have absolutely no idea how to handle this. I feel like it's a case of "He said, She said". We never received any notices that our account was delinquent and I feel like whoever my husband spoke to on the phone in February lied to us. Is there anything we can do to fix this? Or do we just suck it up and move on?

[Anonymous]

Hopeless,

Was this not reported/visible in your monthly statements?

[SmartCookie]

Hrm.... you are saying  (irregardless of what the discussion with BoA was) that after the conversation, you paid at least the minimum billed BY the due date... and they hit you with lates during those months?  Did you look on your statements to double check this?  

[dizzier]

Pull your monthly statements and look at them to see if they say you were behind. If you don't still have them you can pull them from online.

I don't see how you could have been 600 behind and not known it. Each statement shows if there is a past due amount in the account information section of the bill.

[Anonymous]

When you take on a new credit card or line of credit, it is a contract and will be governed by the laws of that state pertaining to contracts.  In this contract you agreed to pay the minimum amount due each month for the creditor extending credit to you.  If you don't you are in breach of contract and could be sued for the balalnce owed just like any other contract.  Your best bet is to ask that this account be escalated to a supervisor or account manager for review.  The first tier that you are speaking to has no decision making authority other than the policies issued by the creditor and cannot waiver from those policies.  Follow up with a letter telling them your story that you got behind in not paying the toal of what was due in Feb and it carried for several months therafter.  Tell your story such that had it not been for the occassion in February, you would not have had the subsequent delinquencies.  Ask for forgiveness in your error just this once and assure them it will never happen again.  Tell them that these multiple delinquencies are preventing you from purchasing your first home and send all of this in writing to the supervisor or account manager.  This should get the delinquencies reduced to at least one 30 day late. 

[Anonymous]

Why would you need to "bring it to current" if you were not behind?