My credit score was 760 last year... now I'm down to 600. What do I do?

[Anonymous]

Just a few months ago my credit score was up to 760, and I was paying everything on time.  Since then, I opened a Discover card, where I accidentally missed a $25 bill payment by maybe a week or two.  That dropped me to about 640.  I then built it back up to 670.  I just got an alert that me missing my car payment by a few weeks last month dropped me down to 600.  Eek.  The car payment was missed because I had gone through all the steps of my online payment, but for whatever reason it didn't finalize, so I went a couple weeks without realizing the payment never went through. 

It really sucks that I had a good score, and now I've completely dwindled to this score by missing two payments? What can I do to get back up there?  Of course this is perfect timing because I'll also be looking for a new apartment in the next couple months, and I imagine this is going to really hurt me.

My debt as it stands:

American Express - no balance
Discover card - $700 (interest free for about 16 more months.  Will be paid off soon anyway)
Car loan - $5k
Student loans - $28k

I make around $40k a year.  How long will it take to repair this? 

Thank you!

[fishbjc]

You have to be 30 days late in order to get hit with a 30 day derog.  Are you sure it isn't something else?   Missing a payment on the Discover by a week or two, just won't cut it.

If you missed the car payment by a few weeks, that would definitely get you a 30.  How about trying a goodwill letter asking for a removal?  If they say no, keep trying.

[Gunnar419]

I agree on the GW. If you've been a good customer and have a strong track record with a company, a lot of them will easily remove the record of a single late payment as a courtesy. Since you have an ongoing relationship with them, it can probably be done with a phone call to their 800 numbers.

[Anonymous]

Thank you.  I'll call PNC about that one.  It looks like the other thing hurting my score was a debt from Verizon that went over to a collections agency on 12/1/12 in the amount of $930.  I'm going to send them a letter asking if I pay it in full if they will do a "pay for delete."  I used a template for a PFD that I found on this site.  Does that sound like a good idea?

[guiness56]

As long as the template does not make demands, such as deleting in a certain amount of time.  Keep in mind a PFD is a type of GW and you are basically asking for a favor.