topic Re: Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE in Rebuilding Your Credit

Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 17:45:46 GMT

Hi All,

Sorry I'm new here, so not sure if it is required to bring up past discussions on the topic or if ok to start new ones. Anyway, I lost my job in 2015 and moved across country, took me about 8 months to find a new job. With that, I had a few 60-90 day late payments on two Cap One cards and one Discover card. Since then, they have all been paid off ($10k , $2k and $2K limit) they were never closed and I now use them for small items monthly with no late payment since 2015.

Regarding the goodwill letters, I've sent them to both Capital One and Discover. Also a email to discover. Got denied all 4 times with letters back to me saying Fair Credit Reporting Act requires them to report the account accurately.

Am I wasting my time sending more to different offices/contacts? I see people have suggested the method of sending as many as possible, but are goodwills a thing of the past and not effective now?

Thanks

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

gdale6 — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 19:55:45 GMT

No they are not a thing of the past, some grant them others wont, Discover is one tough cookie always has been. The older they are the better the chance.

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

myriamma01 — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 13:17:37 GMT

They're definitely not a thing from the past. I just got 1 late payment from creditone removed,2 from synchrony bank and capital one walmart has agreed to remove 2 late payments all payments were only about 8 months old. Just keep trying.

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 13:34:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Regarding the goodwill letters, I've sent them to both Capital One and Discover. Also a email to discover. Got denied all 4 times with letters back to me saying Fair Credit Reporting Act requires them to report the account accurately.

They are not wrong. The FCRA requires the information reported to be accurate. I've never had success with GW letters, but I have had success requesting exclusion of derogatory entries. In essence, reporting is at the discretion of the OC, they dont have to report, but if they do it must be accurate. But they can choose to exclude the payments for those months instead, and that's perfectly legal. I try to explain that on my letters and it has worked for me.

"I know the Fair Credit Report Act requires the information being reported to be accurate. The FCRA, however, also dictates that is not mandatory to report any information at all and reporting is at the full discretion of the creditor. I know this account is being report accurately but, in the interest of customer service and goodwill, would it be possible to request an early exclusion and extend a one-time courtesy to remove the late payment entries from 2015 from my credit before the full 7 years have passed?"

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 17:49:21 GMT

Just an update. I have done the saturation method the past two weeks. Got some denials again -, but woke up this morning and checked my reports.

Come to find out , all of my Discover late payments from 2015/2016 were gone. Two weeks ago I emailed the CEO and got a denial, so just started sending more letters to multiple locations. Never got any calls backs, just denial letters.

So not sure which contact worked, but they are gone from all 3 reports. Credit jumped about 35 points on average on all 3 reports.

I'm still trying to tackle Capital One, but this gave me some boosted confidence.

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 18:52:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Just an update. I have done the saturation method the past two weeks. Got some denials again -, but woke up this morning and checked my reports.

Come to find out , all of my Discover late payments from 2015/2016 were gone. Two weeks ago I emailed the CEO and got a denial, so just started sending more letters to multiple locations. Never got any calls backs, just denial letters.

So not sure which contact worked, but they are gone from all 3 reports. Credit jumped about 35 points on average on all 3 reports.
I'm still trying to tackle Capital One, but this gave me some boosted confidence.

congrats!

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE

OmarGB9 — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 23:15:53 GMT

Congrats!

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE

credit8502020 — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 03:41:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Just an update. I have done the saturation method the past two weeks. Got some denials again -, but woke up this morning and checked my reports.

Come to find out , all of my Discover late payments from 2015/2016 were gone. Two weeks ago I emailed the CEO and got a denial, so just started sending more letters to multiple locations. Never got any calls backs, just denial letters.

So not sure which contact worked, but they are gone from all 3 reports. Credit jumped about 35 points on average on all 3 reports.
I'm still trying to tackle Capital One, but this gave me some boosted confidence.

Congrats!

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

marylandgurl9988 — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 18:14:38 GMT

@myriamma01 if I may ask where did you send the letter for credit one? I have an account with them and I would to try and have my 2 late payments removed.

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 19:25:19 GMT

I have only sent to Capital One, not Credit One.

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

myriamma01 — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 13:02:16 GMT

Hi here is the only email address I used

robert.dejong@creditone.com

Good luck.

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

marylandgurl9988 — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 14:04:57 GMT

Thank you!

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 16:34:06 GMT

Just an update on my progress. I'm now down to just Capital One late payments. Rest have been removed. Sent multiple GW to them. Got two phone calls this week from two different ladies at CAP1. Both were extremely nice, but both told me they can't remove due to the Fair Credit act, etc.

I will keep trying them. I'm reading everywhere that CAP1 is a tough one to crack.

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE

simplegirl — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 16:26:59 GMT

Hello and congratulations on your success. Is there anyway you could possibly message me the address you sent the discover goodwill letters to? Or is it something you can find on google?

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 16:45:59 GMT

They are not wrong. The FCRA requires the information reported to be accurate. I've never had success with GW letters, but I have had success requesting exclusion of derogatory entries. In essence, reporting is at the discretion of the OC, they dont have to report, but if they do it must be accurate. But they can choose to exclude the payments for those months instead, and that's perfectly legal. I try to explain that on my letters and it has worked for me.

"I know the Fair Credit Report Act requires the information being reported to be accurate. The FCRA, however, also dictates that is not mandatory to report any information at all and reporting is at the full discretion of the creditor. I know this account is being report accurately but, in the interest of customer service and goodwill, would it be possible to request an early exclusion and extend a one-time courtesy to remove the late payment entries from 2015 from my credit before the full 7 years have passed?"

Interesting information.

Admittley I not the best of citing legal stuff, but I am curious if you could direct me where I could cite this from in my goodwill/exclusion letter, and out of more curiousity is there any case law that could be cited.

Long story short, I'm getting nowhere on removing a late payment, with Freedom Mortgage, that was online payment that did not go through, and I was not notified of this until it was 30 days late. I have gotten the run around with customer service, and a refusal to acknowldege a glitch in their system. I intend to send goodwill letters to buisiness offices and CEO/executive staff. I feel this information you providing would be helpful, but would also like to be able to provide a citation of sorts to bolster my position.

Thnaks.

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

myquestionsfico — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 03:20:42 GMT

Boisvert - so has this tecnique worked often for you? Just curious, as I'm in a similar spot. I have some closed accounts that will be good for Early Exclusion in 2021, but I also have some lates that EE doesn't apply for. They are all over 5.5 to 6 years old now, so my hope is that by appealing - as you did - for EE from OC's, I might be able to get them off my reports a little early than 7 years (for each late).

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

OmarGB9 — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 06:07:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Just an update on my progress. I'm now down to just Capital One late payments. Rest have been removed. Sent multiple GW to them. Got two phone calls this week from two different ladies at CAP1. Both were extremely nice, but both told me they can't remove due to the Fair Credit act, etc.

I will keep trying them. I'm reading everywhere that CAP1 is a tough one to crack.

Anytime they mention FCRA, counter with "Yes, if you report, you have to report accurately by law, but by law you also don't have to report anything at all. It is completely at your discretion whether to report anything. Therefore, I am asking for exclusion of the late payments from my credit report." or something to that effect.

Keep trying. Good luck, and congrats on the successes so far!

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 21:41:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Regarding the goodwill letters, I've sent them to both Capital One and Discover. Also a email to discover. Got denied all 4 times with letters back to me saying Fair Credit Reporting Act requires them to report the account accurately.

They are not wrong. The FCRA requires the information reported to be accurate. I've never had success with GW letters, but I have had success requesting exclusion of derogatory entries. In essence, reporting is at the discretion of the OC, they dont have to report, but if they do it must be accurate. But they can choose to exclude the payments for those months instead, and that's perfectly legal. I try to explain that on my letters and it has worked for me.

"I know the Fair Credit Report Act requires the information being reported to be accurate. The FCRA, however, also dictates that is not mandatory to report any information at all and reporting is at the full discretion of the creditor. I know this account is being report accurately but, in the interest of customer service and goodwill, would it be possible to request an early exclusion and extend a one-time courtesy to remove the late payment entries from 2015 from my credit before the full 7 years have passed?"

That is an interesting fact. Out of curiosity, is there something more specific to cite or does just citing the "FCRA" (in general) seem to be working.... any case law or precendents that you, or anyone, are aware of?

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE

credit8502020 — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 05:26:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Just an update. I have done the saturation method the past two weeks. Got some denials again -, but woke up this morning and checked my reports.

Come to find out , all of my Discover late payments from 2015/2016 were gone. Two weeks ago I emailed the CEO and got a denial, so just started sending more letters to multiple locations. Never got any calls backs, just denial letters.

So not sure which contact worked, but they are gone from all 3 reports. Credit jumped about 35 points on average on all 3 reports.
I'm still trying to tackle Capital One, but this gave me some boosted confidence.

@Anonymous Congrats! Do you mind sharing where you sent your letters for Discover? I have lates on Discover that I need to get removed. Planning to email the CEO this week, but figured I would mail as well. Also do you mind sharing the content of your letter?

Re: Goodwill letters on late payments ---UPDATE

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 16:44:42 GMT

Hi,

I sent multiple letters to this address: Discover Financial Services P.O. Box 30943 Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0943. I think this is the one that worked. I'm guessing I got lucky and the right person at the right time opened one of them and took care of it. I never got a call , letter or email saying they would. Just opened my credit report and bam..they were gone!

I did email the CEO, but got back a letter and email from someone in his office, saying they could not offer a goodwill adjustment. So it was the hard copy letters that worked.

Honestly, in my letters. I just told the truth. Company I was working for was sold, lost my job, moved across country for a new job and got behind. Basically, life happened. Haha. Told them I'm in a good place the past 5 years. I've been a loyal customer for 19 years and only had those 3 missed payments.

Good luck.

PS- I'm still trying to crack Capital One. They are a tough one. But I keep sending letters and emails.