Hello Everyone,
First of all, some of this background information is in another thread, as I asked for some advice when trying to figure out how to handles this, so I apologize for repeating myself. With that in mind, here goes...
In 2008, my wife and I fell behind on our bills. Not by much but by enough to get a few black marks on our credit report. We were able to get everything under control, make agreements with our creditors, and limit the amount of damage to our credit reports. As part of our agreement, we entered a debt management program. I know many people here don't like DMPs, but for us, it was great. We had to close out our credit cards, but in return, all the fees stopped, and our interest rates went WAY down. We were happy, made all of our payments in time, and got back in control of our finances.
In 2011, I learned that I had the right to see my own credit file. I feel ignorant admitting that I'd never thought to seek out my credit file, but it's something I'd never felt the need to do. Prior to 2008, when I wanted credit, I applied, and I always got approved. Between 2008 and 2011, I was in a DMP, and not applying for any new credit. When I pulled my credit file, I was horrified to see that every month, Citi bank was putting a new 30 day late mark on our credit file. Turns out, I hadn't paid the overage amount (which, unlike our other creditors, wasn't factored into our DMP agreement for some reason), so each month we were considered late. This had been going on for 31 months. I got my account with Citi current, and in 2012 we finished our DMP, and things have been good since.
After reading up on this forum, I decided to try sending off a GW request to Cit. On Tuesday, I sent an email asking for help. I decided to go all the way to the CEO of their credit card division. A few hours later, I was called by someone in their executive customer service to let me know she would review my file. I didn't hear anything from her yesterday, which was disappointing (yes, I know, I'm impatient). This morning, she called me back. Things didn't start off so hot:
"Hello Mr. Bluescale. We spoke earlier this week about your delinquent payment history. I've completed my review of your file and verified that the information on the credit report is correct. Unfortunately, I cannot change the history of your account since we consider this to be an accurate reflection of your account with us." I was crushed. As soon as she broke out the dreaded "unfortunately," all the excitement I'd felt from receiving this call was gone. A month ago I'd been resigned to having this on my credit file ages, but I had been so hopeful. Now it was all for naught - the CEOs office was telling me to go pound sand.
Before I could say anything, she continued: "During my review, I saw that you paid your account in full, and kept the terms your agreed to. I also see the account has been closed for several years now. Because the account was paid as agreed, and because it is now closed, I can submit a request to have the entire tradeline removed from your credit file."
Sure, I would have liked to keep the account, as it was opened in 2006, but I have accounts dating back to 1998 on my report. This one line won't make much of a dent in my AAoA. It's certainly worth it to have 31 late notices removed from my report, even if they are old. As you can imagine, I happily agreed to have the tradeline deleted.
I want to thank everyone here for being so encouraging and such an exceptional resource. If it hadn't been for this forum, I would have sucked it up and lived with A TON of 30 day late marks on my credit reports stemming from 1 missed payment in 2008.
Starting Scores (05/28/2013): EQ (FICO): 582 / TU (FICO): 587 / EX (FAKO): 586