American Express...

[2012Repair]

Hello.  I've got a question for the community.  I've been an American Express member for nearly 30 years.  Always paid on time and was said to be an appreciated member.  In late November of last year, my employment status changed.  I continued to pay accordingly but in January I rang them to speak to them thoroughly about options I had to defer some payments until I secured a new job (which I did in April).  They worked with me in January and we negotiated a payment plan with automatic payments every moth (which I paid according to plan without issue).  I asked specifically when negotiating the terms of payment plan if they would report negatively to the credit bureaus and was assured they would not and they would report 'paying as agreed'.  Well, it would seem they in fact did report negatively to the credit bureaus in which they reported Balance Not Paid in Full.  

I was screwed big time because every month (starting in February) they dragged my credit score down by 40+ a month.  Anyway, since gaining employment again in April, I was able to catch up and on June 1 I settled the outstanding amount.  In parallel, I received a letter from them that they in fact cancelled my account.  Here's the sticky wicky:

While on the phone with them they stated although they closed out my account and in fact where clearing the balance (in the same 24 hour period), they said if I had called back in 48 hours, they would re-instate my account.  Well, today I rang them and was in fact told my account was not available to be re-instated and I would have to re-apply.  So I did.  The outcome?  They declined my new application due to issues with my credit score / report -- in which THEY are the culprit in dinging me.

Does anyone have any advice as to how to sort this out?  I am beyond enraged with them at the mis-management on the original agreement and reporting, the cancellation and now the decline.  Do I have any recourse at all?  Is there a credit repair service I can use to challenge the four dings on my credit report (across the three bureaus) and how they negatively impacted not only my overall credit but also my record with them?

Please advise.

[pip3man]

if you requested a deferred payment plan then technically they are right and only reporting accurate information. Look at it this way, a deferred payment gives u the option to postpone your payments to a later date. Therefore for those months your payment was deferred, you were indeed late. Terms of a revolving credit card requires that you pay the minimum payment due on the specified date so if you had a balance and no payment was received by the due date each month, regardless of any payment plan set up, you were late so they reported that information to the bureaus. Sorry about the miscommunication!

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately without recordings of the phone conversations you made, it's likely that Amex did everything right.

The other unfortunate part of this is that your 30 year history has no bearing on the debt load -- revolving credit is "brand new" every month.  If you pay less than the minimum, by law that's a late payment and the creditor can report you negatively.

If you pay late even once, the creditor can close your accounts for cause.

It is very possible you misunderstood what the CSR told you over the phone or misconstrued their terms to something that sounded safe, but in fact whenever you make financial arrangements with a creditor for less than owed, it's going to ding you and it's going to make the creditor unhappy with you.

The good news is that you paid them IN FULL with no settlement for less than owed, correct?  If so, get your scores back up and they should welcome you back.