topic Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future? in Rebuilding Your Credit

2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

ForgetfulBorrower — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 23:02:17 GMT

Hello,

I am writing to you all to just discuss the topic in general and see if I'm covering all of my bases to get back on track. I have done a bit of research and so many things seem so 50/50, but it seems i'm most likely screwed in the short term.

I missed 2 payments and they became 30 day lates on my credit report. I thought that I previously set them up with autopay, and with how busy life has been these past two months, I've kinda ignored/forget to check up on my daily things. After they reported, my credit score has gone down about 100 points, certain credit cards are slashing their credit limits.. maybe all of them soon.

I had about 10k in accrued expenses on credit cards, just over the past couple months of eating and going out.. car accident had to get paid for etc. I guess I just grew complacent and didn't think anything was wrong til it actually hit. Now I'm stuck with a credit score in the 660's, when just yesterday I was close to busting through 770.

Is there anything I can do to help remove these? Or am I just going to be back on the slow progression path to letting the 2 year period go? I have paid off all of my credit cards today, all that I have left now is a 22k auto loan and 4k in student loans. I would pay everything off tomorrow if I could get these late payments removed.. Please help.

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

FireMedic1 — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 08:48:58 GMT

Welcome @ForgetfulBorrower

Its kinda on you as you said "I've kinda ignored/forget to check up on my daily things". You didnt say who the creditor is. It is what is for now. You can call and plead your case on the auto pay set up. Send off goodwill letters which is on the site on how to do it. Otherwise. Your stuck unfortunately between a rock and a hard place.

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

ForgetfulBorrower — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 10:56:59 GMT

Figures, in your experience, so late payments in this sense have a hard effect when sitting with a mortgage lender?

Under the new FHFA rules, it puts me in a more favorable position to buy a home now with a lower credit score. I have enough cash to pay my debts multiple times over. So I have no concern of defaulting. I am looking to put 25-50% down on a home at this point.

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

TRC_WA — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 19:06:27 GMT

I sure wouldn't let something intentionally go late just to get a lower credit score... but to each his own.

I actually have a hard time understanding how anyone (intentionally or not) could have payments go late due to "I thought it was on autopay." I mean... if it was autopay on Sept 1st and the payment didn't clear by Sept 3rd I'd be checking on it. Actually had that happen with a payment a few months ago and I had accidentally used the wrong account and I corrected it before the due date.

Point being... how does it go 30 days late? Unless you didn't look at your bank accounts? Hard pill to swallow.

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

ForgetfulBorrower — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 21:10:08 GMT

Honestly, I can't help but turn this into a positive situation lol. I didn't plan on buying a home or anything this year in particular, but maybe a year or so further in the future, so I'm sure my credit score will be in the 700s at least by then. But who knows, if there's a lender willing to lend to me a couple months after those lates, I might take them up on it on the right deal.

Work, I've been working about 80-100 hours a week the last couple months, trying to get a bunch of contract work wrapped up. First I think I may have too many cards, 13 credit cards from a couple years of churning. I used to be a bit more diligent on checking up on the balances and things like that, but being so busy I just lumped them in my head like "auto-pay" "no balance" etc. The two of them had some balances that I thought weren't there. I went to check my Credit Karma and saw that my score had tanked, and then dug a little deeper and saw the reason why.

I just laugh at the situation, I love a good comeback story .

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

ForgetfulBorrower — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 23:06:11 GMT

I submitted a dispute to Transunion and Equifax through Credit Karma through the last week. My vantagescore has gone up from 668 to 747 for transunion and equifax.

Do I need to do another one through Experian also? Or will it update the same?

This was a lot quicker than I thought, now I need to call those dopes at the big banks that thought I was going bankrupt and get my credit limits restored.

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

markbeiser — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 03:37:03 GMT

@ForgetfulBorrower wrote:
I submitted a dispute to Transunion and Equifax through Credit Karma through the last week. My vantagescore has gone up from 668 to 747 for transunion and equifax.

Do I need to do another one through Experian also? Or will it update the same?

This was a lot quicker than I thought, now I need to call those dopes at the big banks that thought I was going bankrupt and get my credit limits restored.

When/if the creditors verify the reporting is accurate, you may find that the lates pop back up and your score goes down again.
The better course of action would have been to contact the lender, explain the situation, and ask for them to be removed.

Moving forward, set up notifications on each of your cards so you get notified when bills are due.

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

ForgetfulBorrower — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 11:45:35 GMT

Bank of America and Discover weren't so kind, that was the first thing that I tried. "We have to report everything accurately, if you feel it's not accurate, file a dispute with the bureaus" Is pretty much the response I got. I told them laughing, "yea there's nothing to dispute, but ok I'll do that".

Lol, if it sinks back down, that's fine, I know I'll be right back on track, over 6 years, this was the first mess up I had, I'm confident that it'll never happen again.

What's funny to me is how quickly they change up on you when you mess up, and 30 days late.. is this a joke? I guess for some yes, that spiral can happen very quickly, but to think that the punishment is somewhat severe, it's just funny.

Either way, I'll be back on top in no time, and those dopes will be losing out on credit interest that I left on those balances. They'll likely never get any more credit interest from me again. I was doing as much as possible to build up my cash position in the last 2 years as possible, that I've conceded to leaving balances here and there and paying them to build up cash positions to new plateaus. But that's all changed, now I'll look to take everything from the banks that I can, without paying them anything at all.

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

markbeiser — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 19:15:46 GMT

@ForgetfulBorrower wrote:
But that's all changed, now I'll look to take everything from the banks that I can, without paying them anything at all.

That's the spirit!

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

MeredithLepore — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 06:45:31 GMT

As delinquencies get older, the effect on your credit score should lessen, but you can try to minimize the impact in the meantime by sending a letter to the creditor that explains your situation and history and asking for a "goodwill deletion." Take responsibility for the mishap. If you have a good history with the lender, this could be enough to get the late payment wiped from your credit reports. I'd also make sure you set up autopay to avoid future mishaps.

Re: 2 Late Payments Hit. Credit Score Tanked. How am I looking for the foreseeable future?

IamWesty12 — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 12:42:03 GMT

@ForgetfulBorrower wrote:
Hello,

I am writing to you all to just discuss the topic in general and see if I'm covering all of my bases to get back on track. I have done a bit of research and so many things seem so 50/50, but it seems i'm most likely screwed in the short term.

I missed 2 payments and they became 30 day lates on my credit report. I thought that I previously set them up with autopay, and with how busy life has been these past two months, I've kinda ignored/forget to check up on my daily things. After they reported, my credit score has gone down about 100 points, certain credit cards are slashing their credit limits.. maybe all of them soon.

I had about 10k in accrued expenses on credit cards, just over the past couple months of eating and going out.. car accident had to get paid for etc. I guess I just grew complacent and didn't think anything was wrong til it actually hit. Now I'm stuck with a credit score in the 660's, when just yesterday I was close to busting through 770.

Is there anything I can do to help remove these? Or am I just going to be back on the slow progression path to letting the 2 year period go? I have paid off all of my credit cards today, all that I have left now is a 22k auto loan and 4k in student loans. I would pay everything off tomorrow if I could get these late payments removed.. Please help.

@ForgetfulBorrower this sucks, especially if it was an honest "oh sh** I spaced with work, life, hectic day to day life event". I can certainly buy into this, being a single parent of 3 working 50+ weekly and then working on charts during the weekend. Point is, it happen and it does no good for anyone to question how it could happen. It did, it stinks but it is what it is. Like FM said, you can try to GW and keep fingers crossed, but overall, the biggest next step is to not let this happen again. Sounds like the GW may not help, so moving forward, learn from this and allow this to always be a teaching moment. Long haul you will be fine, but in the now and the coming months it will sting the most. You got this!