Paying Down Debt-dropped credit score dramatically

[Anonymous]

The AZEO Method

1. Pay all your credit card accounts down to zero, except for one account
2. Let that one account report a balance of $5 up to 8% on statement cut date
3. After you are sure it reported $5-8%, you pay it in full to avoid interest
4. Do this every month, letting ONE account report $5-8% before paying it off, and making sure to pay off all the other accounts to $0 before the statement date reports a balance.

[Anonymous]

Ok, thank you both for your help.  I guess I am just out of luck at least for the next 12-24 months because of the 30D late payment.  Again, thank you!

[Anonymous]

Don't assume that for a variety of reasons!

1. Some loan originators may allow you to explain that late payment and still be approved by underwriting.
2. Paying down your debts using the AZEO method may help boost your scores enough to bring you to the better interest rate tier
3. Not all loan originators require high credit scores to still get approved at a reasonable interest rate
4. Higher down payments may help you qualify for a better interest rate so look at those options
5. Some creditors WILL remove a single 30D late with goodwill attempts

I have a credit card (my oldest now at 61 months old) that went 120D late and was literally HOURS from being charged off when I paid it in full.  It shows 120D late on all my credit reports which is as bad as a CO and stays negative for 7 years.

I wrote literally hundreds of letters, emails and faxes.  I spent probably 10 hours on Google looking for names of various VPs and CxOs and wrote them personal letters (and randomly guessed at their email addresses, too) for 6 months.

Finally out of the blue on some random Saturday, the CFO called me on my cell phone (from his cell phone) and told me he would be updating my account to reflect NEVER LATE on the account since I brought the account current and was showing good responsible usage).

Within the next 60 days, all my reports reflected perfect payment history.

Yes, it took me 20-30 hours of work, tons of letters, emails, etc, but they finally approved me for goodwill correction.  I still have the card, too, but I don't use it at all.

Try goodwill.  Try letters, emails, etc.

[UpperNwGuy]

ABCD2199 and K-in-Boston have been giving you some excellent advice.  I would add one more piece.  Log into every single one of your card accounts at least once each month, perferably twice.  It wil not only enable you to catch fees and late charges before they are due, but it will also allow you to catch fraudulent activity.  Don't rely on text message alerts.  They are sometimes unreliable.

The $59 fee that was paid late... was that one of Bank of America's risk-based fees by any chance?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Don't assume that for a variety of reasons!

1. Some loan originators may allow you to explain that late payment and still be approved by underwriting.
2. Paying down your debts using the AZEO method may help boost your scores enough to bring you to the better interest rate tier
3. Not all loan originators require high credit scores to still get approved at a reasonable interest rate
4. Higher down payments may help you qualify for a better interest rate so look at those options
5. Some creditors WILL remove a single 30D late with goodwill attempts

I have a credit card (my oldest now at 61 months old) that went 120D late and was literally HOURS from being charged off when I paid it in full.  It shows 120D late on all my credit reports which is as bad as a CO and stays negative for 7 years.

I wrote literally hundreds of letters, emails and faxes.  I spent probably 10 hours on Google looking for names of various VPs and CxOs and wrote them personal letters (and randomly guessed at their email addresses, too) for 6 months.

Finally out of the blue on some random Saturday, the CFO called me on my cell phone (from his cell phone) and told me he would be updating my account to reflect NEVER LATE on the account since I brought the account current and was showing good responsible usage).

Within the next 60 days, all my reports reflected perfect payment history.

Yes, it took me 20-30 hours of work, tons of letters, emails, etc, but they finally approved me for goodwill correction.  I still have the card, too, but I don't use it at all.

Try goodwill.  Try letters, emails, etc.

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Thank you,  I appreciate all of that info.  A large down payment isout of the question, I have no way to get those funds and keep my bills paid on time.  I wish I had a large down payment.  I will try what you did to get that deleted from the agencies.  Thank you again!

[Anonymous]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

ABCD2199 and K-in-Boston have been giving you some excellent advice.  I would add one more piece.  Log into every single one of your card accounts at least once each month, perferably twice.  It wil not only enable you to catch fees and late charges before they are due, but it will also allow you to catch fraudulent activity.  Don't rely on text message alerts.  They are sometimes unreliable.

The $59 fee that was paid late... was that one of Bank of America's risk-based fees by any chance?

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Thank you for your reply.  Funny thing is I do log in to my accounts all the time.  The issue with this one is I never ise the card so I literally space it, I should just close it.  It's not BOA, it was Capitol One annual fee, which was paid btw.  The 30d late was on  the late fee, which was also paid.  one day passed their 30 day mark, I guess.

[UpperNwGuy]

Sounds like your card was the Capital One Venture.  If so, it's worth keeping and using, because it has better rewards than those other cards you listed.  Also, I'm thinking that if you want Capital One to forgive the 30 day late payment, you might want to hang on to that card and use it wisely for a period of time to rebuild your reputation in Capital One's estimation.

[Anonymous]

Very easy to keep this from ever happening again in the future - for EVERY card you have set up automatic payments of the minimum payment.  Then continue to pay the cards as you normally would and when you pay that will cancel the auto minimum payment.  This way you get your bills paid and paid off like you should, but if you ever mess up again the card will go ahead and pay that minimum for you.

That is much better than having a late payment haunt you for 7 years!  I do this and have never had an automatic payment actually go through, but man I like the peace of mind!

[Anonymous]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

Sounds like your card was the Capital One Venture.  If so, it's worth keeping and using, because it has better rewards than those other cards you listed.  Also, I'm thinking that if you want Capital One to forgive the 30 day late payment, you might want to hang on to that card and use it wisely for a period of time to rebuild your reputation in Capital One's estimation.

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I called Capitol One and they told me they have to open an investogation, send a report and was for 30-90 days to get a response.  They said there was nothing they could actually due except try to dispute it will a letter.  So I guess at this point, that's what I'm waiting on.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I appreciate this, too bad I didn't think of it before it halted my house hunting plan.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Very easy to keep this from ever happening again in the future - for EVERY card you have set up automatic payments of the minimum payment.  Then continue to pay the cards as you normally would and when you pay that will cancel the auto minimum payment.  This way you get your bills paid and paid off like you should, but if you ever mess up again the card will go ahead and pay that minimum for you.

That is much better than having a late payment haunt you for 7 years!  I do this and have never had an automatic payment actually go through, but man I like the peace of mind!

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