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I was in a car accident almost 4 years ago. I was in a coma, and my father took care of my finances. But he couldn't gain control before my credit was injured. Luckily he got most cards to repeal the 30 days late status on my credit. However, one company, home depot, refused to take my late fee off. Fast forward a few months and I called them bitching. They would NOT fix my credit. So what did they do? Close my account and hurt my credit EVEN MORE. Obviously I can't do anything about this now, but my question is, how long do i have to put up with this skeleton in the closet?
@Anonymous wrote:I was in a car accident almost 4 years ago. I was in a coma, and my father took care of my finances. But he couldn't gain control before my credit was injured. Luckily he got most cards to repeal the 30 days late status on my credit. However, one company, home depot, refused to take my late fee off. Fast forward a few months and I called them bitching. They would NOT fix my credit. So what did they do? Close my account and hurt my credit EVEN MORE. Obviously I can't do anything about this now, but my question is, how long do i have to put up with this skeleton in the closet?
Welcome to the board
Per federal law the max time a late can remain on file is 7 years from the time it happened. If the account actually went to CO status then the account as a whole can report for a max of 7.5 yrs from the DoFD. There is nothing stopping you from trying again to get a GW removal of the late, I would send a mailed in letter to the office of the CEO (CitiFinancial)
Thank you for your prompt response! I appreciate it For my GW letter, I looked at the link you posted... would my name/address suffice? I don't have my account number...
I would get your account number first. Perhaps your father still has a copy of an old bill, or just call up CS and tell them your name and that you're looking for additional account info.
I agree that pounding Citi with a GW letter campaign is a great idea. Tell them you want to apply for several new Citi accounts but are apprehensive about doing so due to that past negative account that you'd really like to see cleaned up because of... [tell your story]...
I have a score of 741. I'm also 25 and living at home. Should I even bother when I only have 3 years left of dealing with it? With it meaning less and less as time goes on?
I would ask. Many years ago my wife got very sick and was in the hospital for an extended time. I spent most of the day at the hospital. I missed making a few payments because i was simply busy. I called and got all but one to remove the late charge. The one took the extreme aproach and wanted to cancel her. I called the exec office and not only got the card back but a cli.
@Anonymous wrote:I have a score of 741. I'm also 25 and living at home. Should I even bother when I only have 3 years left of dealing with it? With it meaning less and less as time goes on?
Where are you getting that score from? If it's a genuine FICO 08 score, you're in a pretty good place. If it's from a FAKO source such as Credit Karma, I wouldn't value the score much at all.
Regardless, IMO getting rid of that negative account or the negative items on it would be beneficial to you. The scoring impact of late payments doesn't necessarily become "less and less over time" as many believe a slight diminishing of the impact happens at approximately 2 years, but for the next 5 years it still impacts the score the same. Typically a final negative item dropping off of a report can have a huge scoring impact. Some report 30-40 points gained, others have reported 70-80 points which of course is significant. It might take you a couple of months of sending letters, but if I were you I'd do so since you'd stand a chance of getting those points back rather than having to wait 3 years.
If you are considering a GW letter campaign, here's a thread that I highly recommend:
Well, I have multiple credit cards that generate it for me. When I see the same data in multiple places, I am inclined to believe it. Credit karma is one of many I use: I don't JUST look at that. Notably, my capital one score shows 741 AND my "deragatory payment". But I am not likely to use my credit in the next 3 years. I can say with surity that I won't move out. The only thing I could do is just build it a little. How much can it actually affect me ten years down the road? Also, should I worry about credit lines that much? Where should I be?
Thoughts?
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Michael Malley. I used to own an account with you for Home Depot. About four years ago I was in a pretty bad car accident. I was in a coma and unable to make my payment on time. My father was able to seize my accounts for me, but not until it was too late. I incurred a late fee from EVERY one of my credit accounts. Every account, including you, removed the late fee and I am grateful. However, one thing that the others did for me was remove the negative information from my credit report. I would really appreciate it if CitiFinancial could do the same. It feels bad, four years later, to look at my credit report and see that. It also makes me hesitant to do business with you again after that. I hope you can do something for me.
Warm regards,
Michael Malley
P.S. I don’t know any of my account info (four years is a long time), but I can provide adequate secondary info. My name is Michael Malley, my address is 216 Old Johnston Avenue Waterbury CT, my phone number is 203-848-9738, my birthday is 03/25/91, and the last four of my SSN is 8642.
Don't worry. I used fake info.