topic Re: dispute or wait in Understanding FICO® Scoring

dispute or wait

ecxpa — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 19:24:38 GMT

Earlier I posted ...... "I overlooked a payment on Kohls credit card due to charges DW made without telling me. It was reported as 30 days late giving me a 52 point drop on Ex which had finally passed the 800 point. I talked with folks at Kohl who called be before it was about to report 60 days late. I explained the situation and they waived the late fees, and I paid the account in full. They also said that they would ask a supervisor to do a "credit bureau reset". I called today and was told that a "credit bureau reset" had been done."

Since this conversation my TU lost over 40 points, EQ hasn't been affected so far. I called again today and talked with someone with poor english ability and she stated that "reset" had been done. But I am not sure she fully understood my situation. I checked reports earlier today and the 30 day late from Kohls is still on there. If a "reset" had been done shouldn't it have shown up by now. I'm not sure what a "credit bureau reset" is in the first place.

My question is should I wait for the next statement date which is around the 20th of the month and see if the late disappears, send a "goodwill request letter", or try and dispute. The payment was overlooked while we were recovering from a natural disaster in the form of hurricane Florence. I have heard nightmare stories where disputes caused further tanking of the FICO score and would be viewed adversely on future credit requests.

Re: dispute or wait

Caardvark — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 19:42:41 GMT

I assume any change would not be sent to the CRA until the next, normally scheduled, report is sent. I'd wait a few days after your next statement cuts and then check your reports. Of course, I couild be wrong
On another note: It may be worth asking them what, exactly, they mean by "credit reset." It seems as if we are all speculating what it means. It would be best to ask them directly.

Re: dispute or wait

ridgebackpilot — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 20:00:43 GMT

On your next call, ask them what they mean my a "credit reset". Presumably it means they've asked the CRAs to remove the late payment from your record.

Also, if you're impatient to get this off your credit, you can always ask Kohls to report to the credit agencies right away. Some banks, notably Chase, will report anytime you ask them to. Others aren't willing to do that but it doesn't hurt to ask!

Re: dispute or wait

ecxpa — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 21:11:11 GMT

@ridgebackpilot wrote:
On your next call, ask them what they mean my a "credit reset". Presumably it means they've asked the CRAs to remove the late payment from your record.

Also, if you're impatient to get this off your credit, you can always ask Kohls to report to the credit agencies right away. Some banks, notably Chase, will report anytime you ask them to. Others aren't willing to do that but it doesn't hurt to ask!

I'm going to do that right now!

Re: dispute or wait

ecxpa — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 22:09:44 GMT

Just went a round with the CSR for credit accounts at Kohl's and got nowhere she kept reading from a prepared statement telling me that a request had been sent and I would receive a letter in 2-3 wks after telling me requests are processed within 48 hours and that the request had been made on 12/26/18. After 20-30 minutes pointing out her contradictory statements and telling me her supervisor would tell me the same thing and basically refused to let be talk to her supervisor. After obtaining her name, I advised her that I would be sending a letter of complaint to the home office and point out that she refused to let me talk to her supervisor she put the supervisor on the phone.

The supervisor came on the phone and after I advised her that charges had been made that I was unaware of and that the late payment occurred because of this and was complicated by a natural disaster hurricane Florence, the supervisor told me she was submitting a new request to have a credit bureau reset done. She also told me a letter had been mailed from my original request but she did not know what the result was. Evidently, there was no reset done as my scores have not changed.

She also told me she was confident that the late payment would be removed given the fact that I had never been late on the account, and that I paid the account in full when I found out there was a balance due, and that we had been exposed to hurricane Florence. Hopefully, in a day or two I will see my scores rebound.

Re: dispute or wait

ecxpa — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 16:02:57 GMT

So.....my Kohl's account has updated to a zero balance but no change in credit score. I guess they did not remove the late payment report. I am sending a goodwill letter to executive office in hopes of getting this removed. If they don't, I will be closing the account; every creditor I have offered compassion during hurricane Florence.

Re: dispute or wait

Pikaboo-icu — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 04:34:04 GMT

@ecxpa wrote:
So.....my Kohl's account has updated to a zero balance but no change in credit score. I guess they did not remove the late payment report. I am sending a goodwill letter to executive office in hopes of getting this removed. If they don't, I will be closing the account; every creditor I have offered compassion during hurricane Florence.

At this point, before giving up & closing the acct, you could dispute it.

Dispute via the CBs and explain what you have here.. That Kohl's CS rep said they would remove it.

It can't hurt to try.

GOOD LUCK

Re: dispute or wait

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 05:11:01 GMT

@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
At this point, before giving up & closing the acct, you could dispute it.
Dispute via the CBs and explain what you have here.. That Kohl's CS rep said they would remove it.
It can't hurt to try.

Disputes are not for accurately reported information, which is what the 30 day late that the OP referenced is. A dispute here is only likely to irritate the lender and possibly make it harder to get a GW adjustment at some point. The OP should just explain the situation, apologize and ask for one-time forgiveness of this minor delinquency. I also did not read above that a CS rep said that they would remove it... just that they would do a "credit bureau reset" which sounds bogus to me and could just mean a re-reporting of the account with the new [lower] balance.

Re: dispute or wait

Pikaboo-icu — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 05:31:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
At this point, before giving up & closing the acct, you could dispute it.
Dispute via the CBs and explain what you have here.. That Kohl's CS rep said they would remove it.
It can't hurt to try.

Disputes are not for accurately reported information, which is what the 30 day late that the OP referenced is. A dispute here is only likely to irritate the lender and possibly make it harder to get a GW adjustment at some point. The OP should just explain the situation, apologize and ask for one-time forgiveness of this minor delinquency. I also did not read above that a CS rep said that they would remove it... just that they would do a "credit bureau reset" which sounds bogus to me and could just mean a re-reporting of the account with the new [lower] balance.

I realize that but they are supposed to forward it to Kohls for review & verification.

That would get it in front of them to either remove (as they promised) or not. That's why I said to explain in the dispute the same things posted here.

I would never suggest frivolous disputes but the reps said they were going to delete the lates and it hasn't been done.

Is it possible they only meant reset their internal records? And not the CB?

Re: dispute or wait

ecxpa — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 18:40:51 GMT

I sent a nice GW letter to the Kohls executive office asking them to remove the 30 day late payment due to the devastation of hurricane Florence. If they don't then I will close the account and discourage anyone from shopping at Kohls. If a company is not willing to work with me in a crisis I don't need to be doing business with them nor does anyone. There was interruption in mail service, phone service, and internet service during the hurricane and after. An oversight in this situation is certainly understandable. The late payment was reported to TU and Experian, didn't get reported to EQ as my score there was not affected. Currently my scores are still fairly decent with EQ 763, TU 727, and EX 744.........this late payment just pis#$% me off in these circumstances.

Re: dispute or wait

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 03:09:14 GMT

@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
That would get it in front of them to either remove (as they promised) or not. That's why I said to explain in the dispute the same things posted here.
I would never suggest frivolous disputes but the reps said they were going to delete the lates and it hasn't been done.

But they never actually said they were going to delete the late; they did not promise anything.

Re: dispute or wait

ecxpa — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 04:14:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
That would get it in front of them to either remove (as they promised) or not. That's why I said to explain in the dispute the same things posted here.
I would never suggest frivolous disputes but the reps said they were going to delete the lates and it hasn't been done.

But they never actually said they were going to delete the late; they did not promise anything.

You are right.....they never actually said they were going to delete the late payment but the supervisor sure as he&l indicated it would be removed.....anyway I have the GW lettter written, signed and ready to mail. I plan to call the exec office in the morning to see if there is anyone in particular I should direct the letter to. If so, and I am able to talk with them I will; otherwise I guess I'll just have to wait.

Re: dispute or wait

Pikaboo-icu — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 04:47:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
That would get it in front of them to either remove (as they promised) or not. That's why I said to explain in the dispute the same things posted here.
I would never suggest frivolous disputes but the reps said they were going to delete the lates and it hasn't been done.

But they never actually said they were going to delete the late; they did not promise anything.

Yeah, I'm still confused about this "reset" thing.

I wonder if they meant their internal records, take the late off their records and not the CB.

Re: dispute or wait

ecxpa — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 06:37:59 GMT

@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
That would get it in front of them to either remove (as they promised) or not. That's why I said to explain in the dispute the same things posted here.
I would never suggest frivolous disputes but the reps said they were going to delete the lates and it hasn't been done.

But they never actually said they were going to delete the late; they did not promise anything.
Yeah, I'm still confused about this "reset" thing.
I wonder if they meant their internal records, take the late off their records and not the CB.

I sure don't know what the "reset" thing is either but they clearly stated "credit bureau reset", not an internal tool........or maybe it was. Anyway, I'm moving on with or without Kohls, just picked up the PNC Core Visa card today with 0% Apr for 15 months just in case I need to carry a balance or a while

Re: dispute or wait

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 22:09:49 GMT

@ecxpa wrote:
You are right.....they never actually said they were going to delete the late payment but the supervisor sure as he&l indicated it would be removed.....anyway I have the GW lettter written, signed and ready to mail. I plan to call the exec office in the morning to see if there is anyone in particular I should direct the letter to. If so, and I am able to talk with them I will; otherwise I guess I'll just have to wait.

I would strongly suggest sending more than 1 letter. While some people have success with just 1 letter, the majority doesn't. Rather than worry about who/where you're addressing the 1 letter, I'd spend 15 minutes on Google searching for as many addresses as you can for your creditor. Then print out that many copies, stuff your envelopes and fire them away.

If you find (say) 8 addresses, you just increased your odds of success over just sending the single letter by 8x.

Re: dispute or wait

ecxpa — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 05:32:31 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
.....I would strongly suggest sending more than 1 letter. While some people have success with just 1 letter, the majority doesn't. Rather than worry about who/where you're addressing the 1 letter, I'd spend 15 minutes on Google searching for as many addresses as you can for your creditor. Then print out that many copies, stuff your envelopes and fire them away.

If you find (say) 8 addresses, you just increased your odds of success over just sending the single letter by 8x.

Great idea; I'll do that. Called the executive office today to see if I needed to address this to a particular person and was put on the line with guess who??????......the same customer service rep group I have been talking to.

I think I am fighting a losing battle here.

Re: dispute or wait

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 22:18:32 GMT

Your fight hasn't yet begun.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Saturation-Technique-Best-GW-adjustment-odds/td-p/4727098

Re: dispute or wait

ecxpa — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 06:30:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Your fight hasn't yet begun.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Saturation-Technique-Best-GW-adjustment-odds/td-p/4727098

Thanks for the advice....I'm on my way