topic Re: Please help in General Credit Topics

Please help

housejunkie81 — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 21:09:59 GMT

I had an 808 credit score. I did a balance transfer for the whole amount of my balance. After that I didn't look back. Today 3 months later I check my credit score and it dropped to a 675. I called Bank of America and they said I needed to pay the payoff amount not the total balance. Is there anything I can do. I never had a phone call from Bank of America informing me I'm late nor any emails says my account is past due

Re: Please help

thornback — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 21:26:07 GMT

So, just to make sure i'm understanding properly:

You had a balance on your BoA card which you transferred to another card, but you never went back to confirm that the BoA card still had a zero balance or that no interest was due in the month following the transfer/payoff. So now, 3 months later, you have a late payment (30 day? 60 day?) from BoA for a remaining balance post-transfer (assuming this balance consists of the trailing interest which would have been included in the 'pay-off' amount). And you never received any notification that payment was due/overdue so didn't know until it was too late...

Is that correct?

Re: Please help

SUPERSQUID — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 21:38:56 GMT

I just did sort of the same thing. 1 card showed a certain number as the current balance. I had another card with a zero int for 12 months bt offer. i transfered the current balance to the zero card but checked the original card about a week later and it showed a balance of 32.97, trailing interest.

It happened to me a few decades ago with a cap 1 card. i had a zero balance and didnt regularly check the account. the annual fee kicked in and by the time cap 1 mailed me a letter with big red letters on it i was behind 3 months and the 60 af balooned to a few hundred. i called cap 1 and explained what happened. they put me on hold and checked what i told them and then they reduced the amount to the af owed and erased any lates from my credit reports.

call them and explain, maybe you will get lucky.

Re: Please help

housejunkie81 — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 21:35:16 GMT

In a nutshell that's correct

Re: Please help

thornback — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 21:51:55 GMT

@housejunkie81 wrote:
In a nutshell that's correct

Yea, unfortunately, there's not too much you can do other than request a goodwill deletion of the lates from BoA. the fact that you didn't receive any notifications of your account being overdue isn't going to help you much -- ultimately, it's your responsiblity to monitor your accounts, not theirs. They may be gracious enough to offer a goodwill deletion as a courtesy, given the balance was interest-only, if you take full responsibility of the oversight and point out your stellar past payment history -- to be clear, BoA is not famous for granting goodwills but it's certainly worth trying. Write up a letter (send by mail) - short and sweet, explaining the situation and asking them to consider removing the lates. You can mention the lack of notification - but, in doing so, be sure not to place blame on them - if mentioned, it should be more of a fleeting comment made as an attempt to explain your oversight.

Sorry this has happened to you. I truly hope you have success with a goodwill -- and if you should get a 'no' response the first time - wait a month and try again. You have the next 7 years to work on getting the late(s) removed so don't give up.

Re: Please help

housejunkie81 — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 22:00:09 GMT

Who do i email? Do you have an address? Has anyone ever had a goodwill deletion? Will it really take 7 years for my credit score to bounce back?

Re: Please help

thornback — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 22:11:03 GMT

@housejunkie81 wrote:
Who do i email? Do you have an address? Has anyone ever had a goodwill deletion? Will it really take 7 years for my credit score to bounce back?

Here's the link to the "Bank of America Goodwill" search results for the forums: Search - myFICO® Forums... i suggest you read through - there are success stories -- the first post of the search results offers an address and email (see comments) which i assume is still valid as the post is from Jan 2022.

The lates stay on your reports for 7 years and will negatively impact your scores for the entire time, however, some points will be recovered gradually as the lates age..

Re: Please help

Aim_High — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 03:31:41 GMT

@thornback wrote: ... Write up a letter (send by mail) - short and sweet, explaining the situation and asking them to consider removing the lates. You can mention the lack of notification - but, in doing so, be sure not to place blame on them - if mentioned, it should be more of a fleeting comment made as an attempt to explain your oversight.

Sorry to hear of your lesson from the "school of hard knocks" @housejunkie81, but @thornback gave you some good advice.

Yes, Goodwill letters do work sometimes, but I think I read a statistic once that it was about a 50/50 chance of success. Some lenders refuse to budge. Others are more generous. Definitely send it by SNAIL MAIL, and not just an email. Take time to write a nice professional-looking letter and have someone proof-read it for you. Usually, you want the lender's address that is published on your credit report. I'm not sure I would mention a "lack of notification" as that sounds like you're dismissing ultimate responsibility. Lenders send statements monthly (whether paper or electronic), and it's always our responsibility to check them. You want to make sure to accept responsibility for the error, explain what you've learned and what you've done to prevent future occurrences, and to beg forgiveness. Persistence matters. As thornback said, you've got up to seven years and sometimes an additional letter or two can meet the right eyes. If initially unsuccessful, consider contacting someone further up the totem pole, perhaps even as high as eventually going to the CEO's office. The worst thing that can happen is they say "no."

I had a 30-day late once due to a mail mix-up on a brand-new account. After two Goodwill letters, that lender still refused to remove it and it stayed on my reports for the full seven years. It was highly annoying but the impact on my FICO greatly diminished after the first two or three years. However, there was some marginal score impact for the entire time. Lates are worse if they are reported 60/90+ days and when they are fresh.

Just to be sure, do you understand what happened and how it happened? We do, but we want to be sure to help you prevent this kind of misunderstanding in the future. Let us know if you have questions and best wishes with those Goodwill letters! (If you do a web search for Goodwill letter examples, you can find some suggestions of how to write one but make it your own.)

Re: Please help

thornback — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 03:40:58 GMT

Well said, @Aim_High.

My preference for goodwills is also snail mail - mainly because a paper letter is more likely to receive a thorough reading and to make a connection with the reader than email.

Re: Please help

SoCalGardener — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 22:26:01 GMT

@housejunkie81 wrote:
I had an 808 credit score. I did a balance transfer for the whole amount of my balance. After that I didn't look back. Today 3 months later I check my credit score and it dropped to a 675. I called Bank of America and they said I needed to pay the payoff amount not the total balance. Is there anything I can do. I never had a phone call from Bank of America informing me I'm late nor any emails says my account is past due

You've gotten some excellent advice; hopefully, by carefully following it, you'll get this issue resolved.

But I'm wondering about down the road. What has this lesson taught you? For example, have you gone in to each of your credit card accounts and updated your notification settings? Are you sure all of your personal information is up-to-date, such as e-mail address, physical address, phone number, etc.? I would check all of that, making any updates that are needed, and set alerts for everything that might happen on an account: payment becomes due, payment becomes past-due, a charge is made on the account, you're approaching your credit limit, you're so many days away from your payment due date, and so on. You need to hone in on WHAT failed, and why--and then make sure it can't happen again. I have alerts set on all my accounts for even the most trivial things, like if $0.01 is charged, I get notified!

Also, you might want to consider setting up auto-pay for all of your accounts. I'm personally not a big fan of this, as I prefer to micro-manage every aspect of my finances, but for some people this is a truly valuable tool that can prevent a scenario like yours.

Re: Please help

805orbust — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 14:54:13 GMT

See this is why I hate going paperless. I find it MUCH easier to keep track when I get mail. I use autopay yes, but not having a paper statement and checking these cards online does elevate my BP a smidge. My system has worked thus far and who knows, maybe it'll keep my mind fresh 30 years from now when I'm in my 80's.

Re: Please help

SouthJamaica — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 17:50:47 GMT

@805orbust wrote:
See this is why I hate going paperless. I find it MUCH easier to keep track when I get mail. I use autopay yes, but not having a paper statement and checking these cards online does elevate my BP a smidge. My system has worked thus far and who knows, maybe it'll keep my mind fresh 30 years from now when I'm in my 80's.

Personally I find the transition to electronic communication has made it much easier for me to stay on top of things. I don't rely on email notices, just like I don't rely on paper statements; I monitor my accounts online. By the time I get a statement, its contents are already old news to me.

In this case it was an obvious error in judgment to assume, without verifying it, that interest would stop accruing just because a balance transfer had been initiated at another institution, but even having made that error, OP should have known -- through the miracle of online banking -- about 25 days before payment was due that there was a payment due.

Re: Please help

Aim_High — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 18:11:43 GMT

@805orbust wrote:
See this is why I hate going paperless. I find it MUCH easier to keep track when I get mail. I use autopay yes, but not having a paper statement and checking these cards online does elevate my BP a smidge. My system has worked thus far and who knows, maybe it'll keep my mind fresh 30 years from now when I'm in my 80's.

^ ^ ^ +1 ... And this is why I stay "old-school" and resist the "paperless options." I'm afraid one day that paper won't even be available unless you print it yourself, but I will continue to refuse all the annoying "invitations" to go paperless.

I totally agree that a paper reminder is more effective than electronic, which can more easily get lost in my inbox with an abundance of distractions. At least I get less "junk mail" on a daily basis than "junk email" since it costs someone postage to mail something while email is free.

Beyond that, let's say that I don't mind dealing with all my finances digitally. But ... what happens if I'm incapacitated or unable to manage my finances due to an illness or accident? Especially with face ID and two-factor authentication for security, it's becoming extremely difficult for a trusted third-party to manage my accounts for me, even if I maintain account details and passwords monthly as anything changes. I do have "auto pay" set up to the minimums but I don't want to set "pay in full" since my credit limits easily exceed how much I choose to keep in my payment accounts and I want control over moving balances before making payments. A paper statement arriving in my mailbox is much easier for someone other-than-me to manage.

Beyond that, here are a few other reasons I don't go paperless:

Electronic statements are convenient and provide less clutter, but I still like my paper backups. Over the years, I've watched information I've stored digitally become more-and-more obsolete as storage media changes, software that reads it has changed, and files aren't easy to pull up on a screen today. I want access to my data as long as I want at my choice, and I don't want to have to jump through hoops to get to it.
Websites will often store our data for some arbitrary period of time, but then it is erased. I don't want to have to add to my monthly chores to visit each account, access that statement, and download it to hard drive to make sure I have a copy. This just adds work for me. Saving the bank money at my expense and inconvenience.
Financial institutions are saving a ton of money by not having to print or mail statements. But did they pass any of these savings back to the consumer or did they just pocket the savings and laugh at our gullibility? If I want a paper copy, I have to take time to access my statements and then use up my own paper and ink to print them.

Re: Please help

SoCalGardener — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 18:31:30 GMT

@805orbust wrote:
See this is why I hate going paperless. I find it MUCH easier to keep track when I get mail. I use autopay yes, but not having a paper statement and checking these cards online does elevate my BP a smidge. My system has worked thus far and who knows, maybe it'll keep my mind fresh 30 years from now when I'm in my 80's.

I refuse to go paperless--and, apparently, so do the majority of Americans. I took a picture of a "Jeopardy!" question right before Alex Trebek died; I'll have to dig it up to make sure, but I know I'm close on the numbers. It said something to the effect of 'a recent poll showed that even though they pay bills electronically, 96% of Americans still prefer to receive this'--and guess what 'this' was? Yep, PAPER statements!! Count me in that 96%!

I've paid my bills electronically since that first became possible, and I gave paperless billing a try, and also auto-pay, but nixed the latter two very quickly. They just didn't work for me.

With a paper statement, here's an example of how I use them--and can't if it's paperless: say a BofA bill comes; it shows the total balance, the minimum due, the due date, plus any other information that's relevant, such as 0% offers I'm in, or 0% BTs I used. At the top of the bill, I write the date I paid it, the amount I paid (or I just circle the total if that's what I paid), circle or put asterisks next to 0% notations and write what I used them for and when they expire, and so on and so on.... Among other things, paperless billing cannot show the date you actually MADE the payment, only the date it got PROCESSED--and, as I know many of us have experienced, discrepancies there can be a problem. Being able to physically hold a statement in my hand and say "I made the payment on MM/DD/YY but you didn't post it until ....." could come in very handy!

Re: Please help

SoCalGardener — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 18:33:13 GMT

@Aim_High wrote:
@805orbust wrote:
See this is why I hate going paperless. I find it MUCH easier to keep track when I get mail. I use autopay yes, but not having a paper statement and checking these cards online does elevate my BP a smidge. My system has worked thus far and who knows, maybe it'll keep my mind fresh 30 years from now when I'm in my 80's.
^ ^ ^ +1 ... And this is why I stay "old-school" and resist the "paperless options." I'm afraid one day that paper won't even be available unless you print it yourself, but I will continue to refuse all the annoying "invitations" to go paperless.

I totally agree that a paper reminder is more effective than electronic, which can more easily get lost in my inbox with an abundance of distractions. At least I get less "junk mail" on a daily basis than "junk email" since it costs someone postage to mail something while email is free.

Beyond that, let's say that I don't mind dealing with all my finances digitally. But ... what happens if I'm incapacitated or unable to manage my finances due to an illness or accident?   Especially with face ID and two-factor authentication for security, it's becoming extremely difficult for a trusted third-party to manage my accounts for me, even if I maintain account details and passwords monthly as anything changes.   I do have "auto pay" set up to the minimums but I don't want to set "pay in full" since my credit limits easily exceed how much I choose to keep in my payment accounts and I want control over moving balances before making payments.    A paper statement arriving in my mailbox is much easier for someone other-than-me to manage.

Beyond that, here are a few other reasons I don't go paperless:
Electronic statements are convenient and provide less clutter, but I still like my paper backups. Over the years, I've watched information I've stored digitally become more-and-more obsolete as storage media changes, software that reads it has changed, and files aren't easy to pull up on a screen today.   I want access to my data as long as I want at my choice, and I don't want to have to jump through hoops to get to it.
Websites will often store our data for some arbitrary period of time, but then it is erased. I don't want to have to add to my monthly chores to visit each account, access that statement, and download it to hard drive to make sure I have a copy. This just adds work for me. Saving the bank money at my expense and inconvenience.
Financial institutions are saving a ton of money by not having to print or mail statements. But did they pass any of these savings back to the consumer or did they just pocket the savings and laugh at our gullibility?   If I want a paper copy, I have to take time to access my statements and then use up my own paper and ink to print them.

+1,000,000!

Re: Please help

OmarGB9 — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 20:23:47 GMT

@SoCalGardener wrote:
@805orbust wrote:
See this is why I hate going paperless. I find it MUCH easier to keep track when I get mail. I use autopay yes, but not having a paper statement and checking these cards online does elevate my BP a smidge. My system has worked thus far and who knows, maybe it'll keep my mind fresh 30 years from now when I'm in my 80's.
I refuse to go paperless--and, apparently, so do the majority of Americans. I took a picture of a "Jeopardy!" question right before Alex Trebek died; I'll have to dig it up to make sure, but I know I'm close on the numbers. It said something to the effect of 'a recent poll showed that even though they pay bills electronically, 96% of Americans still prefer to receive this'--and guess what 'this' was? Yep, PAPER statements!! Count me in that 96%!

I've paid my bills electronically since that first became possible, and I gave paperless billing a try, and also auto-pay, but nixed the latter two very quickly. They just didn't work for me.

With a paper statement, here's an example of how I use them--and can't if it's paperless: say a BofA bill comes; it shows the total balance, the minimum due, the due date, plus any other information that's relevant, such as 0% offers I'm in, or 0% BTs I used. At the top of the bill, I write the date I paid it, the amount I paid (or I just circle the total if that's what I paid), circle or put asterisks next to 0% notations and write what I used them for and when they expire, and so on and so on.... Among other things, paperless billing cannot show the date you actually MADE the payment, only the date it got PROCESSED--and, as I know many of us have experienced, discrepancies there can be a problem. Being able to physically hold a statement in my hand and say "I made the payment on MM/DD/YY but you didn't post it until ....." could come in very handy!

Actually, I disagree. I use electronic statements, and ALL of my cards actually show both the "transaction date" and the "posting date" for all payments. Also, to your point, who's to say you didn't write in when you made your payment AFTER the fact that it was late? Not saying you would do that, but just pointing out how easy it'd be to claim it was on time based on a self-reported, hand-written payment date, whether or not that date was accurate.

To OP, sorry about the BoA issues. This is why it is extremely crucial to ALWAYS follow up on BTs to ensure the account being paid really does get zeroed out, and if it doesn't, make sure to pay off any trailing interest.

Re: Please help

SoCalGardener — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 22:07:18 GMT

@OmarGB9 wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:
@805orbust wrote:
See this is why I hate going paperless. I find it MUCH easier to keep track when I get mail. I use autopay yes, but not having a paper statement and checking these cards online does elevate my BP a smidge. My system has worked thus far and who knows, maybe it'll keep my mind fresh 30 years from now when I'm in my 80's.
I refuse to go paperless--and, apparently, so do the majority of Americans. I took a picture of a "Jeopardy!" question right before Alex Trebek died; I'll have to dig it up to make sure, but I know I'm close on the numbers. It said something to the effect of 'a recent poll showed that even though they pay bills electronically, 96% of Americans still prefer to receive this'--and guess what 'this' was? Yep, PAPER statements!! Count me in that 96%!

I've paid my bills electronically since that first became possible, and I gave paperless billing a try, and also auto-pay, but nixed the latter two very quickly. They just didn't work for me.

With a paper statement, here's an example of how I use them--and can't if it's paperless: say a BofA bill comes; it shows the total balance, the minimum due, the due date, plus any other information that's relevant, such as 0% offers I'm in, or 0% BTs I used. At the top of the bill, I write the date I paid it, the amount I paid (or I just circle the total if that's what I paid), circle or put asterisks next to 0% notations and write what I used them for and when they expire, and so on and so on.... Among other things, paperless billing cannot show the date you actually MADE the payment, only the date it got PROCESSED--and, as I know many of us have experienced, discrepancies there can be a problem. Being able to physically hold a statement in my hand and say "I made the payment on MM/DD/YY but you didn't post it until ....." could come in very handy!
Actually, I disagree. I use electronic statements, and ALL of my cards actually show both the "transaction date" and the "posting date" for all payments. Also, to your point, who's to say you didn't write in when you made your payment AFTER the fact that it was late? Not saying you would do that, but just pointing out how easy it'd be to claim it was on time based on a self-reported, hand-written payment date, whether or not that date was accurate.

We're not understanding each other.

Let's say you pay your Amex bill via BofA's bill pay on March 20. BofA tells you straight up that the first available date to process the payment is March 22. Amex will receive the payment on [or after] March 22, although they don't *post* it that day; as I've said in other posts, virtually all of my cards acknowledge a payment on the same day BofA made it, but they do not finish POSTING it (and adjust the account's balance) for 24-48 hours. There is no way that Amex would know you made the payment on March 20! But you would. Which is my whole point. Let's say Amex doesn't receive the payment and you have to call BofA to straighten it out--it would be important to tell them the date you actually initiated the payment, so they can check for glitches that day--knowing the date it was processed wouldn't help as much.

Also, this info I write on my bills is for *my* reference. There would be no point in lying to myself about the date I made a payment! My point about this info coming in handy refers to if an issue comes up, I can refer back to my notes and give the bank (either one) the appropriate information so they can research it.

Re: Please help

disdreamin — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 01:53:54 GMT

@SoCalGardener wrote:
Also, this info I write on my bills is for *my* reference. There would be no point in lying to myself about the date I made a payment! My point about this info coming in handy refers to if an issue comes up, I can refer back to my notes and give the bank (either one) the appropriate information so they can research it.

This kind of detailed record-keeping has saved me a lot of hassle a few times. Being able to provide, down to the hour, when a payment was initiated or information was provided has allowed payments and other information to be tracked down.

I'm another hard-copy vote. Primarily for the reminder, but also in case something happens to be and P2 has to take over bill paying. P2 knows what I/we have, but the details would be so much easier to determine with hard copies arriving as prompts.

Re: Please help

krit — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:01:34 GMT

I'm considering putting all my cards on autopay in case I overlook something or are incapacitated. (That would be only if the minimum payment was debited instead of the entire balance, which I'm certain would be the case.) I generally PIF, but making a minimum payment would beat the heck out of missing one altogether.

Re: Please help

FireMedic1 — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 02:49:01 GMT

My vote is paperless. Just enough papers stacked up from other stuff till I go thur them then trash em. Have to go online to make those payments anyways. So not to forget. I made shortcuts on my desktop and icons with the date the statment cuts. Created icons pics to store in a file on the computer that the links pull from and renamed the icon name. Soon as I log on. I can see whos next to pay and when. And the banks where the payment comes from too. Kinda KISS method.