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Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

Maybe a strange situation, but I am wondering if anyone has any advice:

 

I applied to Capital One months ago to get a 0% intro rate credit card for a balance transfer to try to get an edge in paying off cc's.  I was approved, but the credit limit was low, so I asked them to close the account immediately and never even activated the card.  I then forgot about it and did not hear from them until yesterday.  Not only had they not contacted me until yesterday, but now they are saying that I am late in payments because an account fee was charged to my account.  I called them this morning.  They said they would remove the fee and close the account, but that it would take 60 days. 

 

The PROBLEM is that I am supposed to close on a house within a month and now my credit score has dropped about 70 points (from near 700 to low 600's)!  I just contacted my bank and explained the situation, but I was told they are going to have to review my credit report again.  Capital One says that it will write a letter to my bank to explain the situation if they need to.  Any advice on whether I should/can do anything else?  Any idea if this is going to screw things up for closing on the house?  We have been looking for a house for a very long time and finally found one that we love.  If this screws things up, I am going to be pissed at Capital One.  Maybe even pissed enough to bring a lawsuit if things really go badly.

Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

In the time that it takes them to write a letter, they can simply update to all three of your credit reports. (Seriously.) It's electronic. All they have to do is refresh your account info with the CRA's.

 

Experian should post/ update immediately. EQ and TU will probably mosey around, taking between 3 - 7 days.

 

I'd ask them to write the letter as well, though. Try hard to remain calm when you're talking to them (I do understand where you're coming from), in line with the old saying that you can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. Smiley Wink

* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 2 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

Thanks for your response!  If they can just refresh my report with the CRA's, I am definitely going to get back on the phone with them.  Any idea why they said it would take 60 days to report to CRA's?

Message 3 of 9
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

I think that's a standard industry response from just about everyone to avoid having hourly calls requesting progress reports.

 

Normally, if you have an open card, they'll wait until they next statement date to update again, so that can be up to 30 days. Then the CRA's have to shuffle around and consult whatever calendar they use to persuade them to post the info. That usually happens within a week to 10 days max, but they've been known to take longer, and again, the bank doesn't want to get calls from frantic consumers.

 

So they give the 60 day figure. (This is my guess, anyway.)

 

In your case, you need them to send in the info today, not whenever it might be scheduled, due to the combination of it being their error in billing you and the urgency in your mortgage app. But they might well have it in a queue scheduled to update in 2-3 weeks or something, so again, sweet-talk them. Smiley Wink

 

If you are able to pull genuinely refreshed Experian reports, it should show up there first. Once it's there, then you need to wait on EQ and TU. They sometimes update within 2-3 days of EX, but it's generally a bit longer. Good luck!

* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 4 of 9
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

Ditto to Hauling. And as mentioned, they always say 60 days. If they are going to update your CRs, it'll be a lot sooner than 60 days.

 

I'd also wait it out and pull your EX report frequently.

Message 5 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

Thanks for your comments.  What a headache!!!

 

I spoke with Capital One and they said they would be updating their info on me within a few days, but that they can't tell me how long the CRAs will take to fix the issue.  I will be calling them tonight.  I also just received a call from my mortgage bank and they told me that with this huge drop in my credit scores I no longer qualify for the program I was going to use.  They also said that a letter from Capital One will not do any good and that they need to see it reflected on my credit scores.  I asked them to wait a couple of weeks to see if I can't fix this problem, which they said they would do. 

 

I am being as civil as possible with Capital One, but if we lose this house because of these problems.....

Message 6 of 9
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

Well, that's some progress, anyway. With Cap One, that is.

 

If there is delay in EQ and TU posting the new info after you see that EX has it, you can pay for something called a "rapid rescore." It might be worth it if it gets the new and proper scores.

 

As for trying to call the CRA's, good luck. Be sure to have a speakerphone and lots and lots of time. I honestly think you'll do better just to let Cap One do its thing and then the CRA's.

* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 7 of 9
GregB
Valued Contributor

Re: Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

It seems you would have been far better off activating the CapOne CC in the first place. It seems calling them and closing the account was not in your best interest. I have also closed a CC when the company irritated me but now know that is a bad idea.

 

I understand that you asked them to close the account and it seems they did not do that. That seems like a valid complaint.

 

Are you also saying that they did not mail you any statements?

Message 8 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Any Helpful Advice!! Capital One screw up going to affect closing on house?

 


@llecs wrote:

Ditto to Hauling. And as mentioned, they always say 60 days. If they are going to update your CRs, it'll be a lot sooner than 60 days.

 

I'd also wait it out and pull your EX report frequently.


A trick I've found with Experian: If you gett your free report, or pay for a report, save the report number. You can re-pull your report multiple times with the report number for at least 30 days. It will be the most current report each time you pull it. You can check your report as many times as you like while only having to pay once (or not at all if you get the annualcreditreport.com report Smiley Happy)!

 

Message 9 of 9
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