Hey guys, over the past few weeks I've been trying to rebuild my credit. I'm in the market for a new car and to rent a new place and my credit score is really going to hurt my chances of this. I havent had a late payment for anything in years (since 08) and I know that late payments stay on your report for 7 years but I figure a goodwill letter wouldnt hurt, right? I've drafted a few up for each account, let me know if you feel it's worth sending them. Can late payments still be removed after a loan (like my student loan) is satisfied? I could use some advice on each account and if you have ANY contact info for any of them, please let me know!
The accounts I have late payments with are the following:
Toyota financial...
I have ONE 30 day late payment, this wasnt due to lack of money or not wanting to pay, but I was in the middle of switching bank accounts to withdraw my money from for this account and somewhere along the line something was messed up and my payment wound up being late.
AES/Keystone Best (student loans)...
I had 5 or 6 accounts with AES for student loans, my payments were perfect for years, until two months before my loans were to be paid off. I have a 60 and 90 day late on each account. This wasnt due to me, it's a long story but my father was responsible for paying off these loans (as per my parents divorce agreement, my mother said she would not colect alimony or child support if my father paid for my college tuition)...around the time that these payments were late, my father had been laid off, and had a heart attack a few months before.
Macy's...
I have one 60 day late payment, I honestly don't know how this happened but this account was just lost in the mix. I dont even remember when I opened this card. The same thing happened for the following card but it's much worse.
Old Navy...
When I foolish junior in college I opened a store card with Old Navy. Again, I completely forgot about this card. And in 2006 I moved, completely forgetting to tell Old Navy that I did and since then they've put a charge off on my account. I'm more than willing to pay this, it's only $76, but the full amount is $230, which again, I'm willing to pay. I wanted to know two things...one, how do I even pay anything? I call the number listed on my CR and they forward me to another number every time that's just giving me a voice mailbox. I cant find someone to pay! A woman gave me an address to write a letter to though. Second question is, would it even be worth it for me to write a GW letter to these guys?
Citi Bank (credit card)...
I ran into some money problems back in 07 and was forced to make a few (three) payments late to Citi. To help me out they put me on a payment plan, I fixed everything within a month or two and have not had an issue paying them since. I currently carry a zero balance with them every month for the past few months, I'm still using my card though! I just pay it off before the statement date.
I also have a few hospital bills that were in collections from a car accident, these were reported erronously and my lawyer sent the three CA's a letter asking them to be removed, as of a week ago two of them have been removed, the last one responded to his letter and I'm just waiting for it to fall off now. Any idea on how long these will take to have an effect on my credit score?
Thanks so much for any info you guys can provide me!!
Starting Score: EQ 522, TU 482 June 2012
