First late payment in 13 years. How to proceed?

[Anonymous]

After carefully establishing credit with my parent's help at 16, I've gone the last 13 years without making a single late payment in my life.

I have three retail accounts owned by WFNNB (LOFT, Victoria's Secret and Restoration Hardware). All are used only occasionally and have always been paid on time. I've paid the balance in full each time I've made a charge. I mostly use the accounts to accumulate loyalty rewards, coupons, etc. For RH, I bought a new sofa under a 0% APR deal and paid it off over the promotional period -- again, always on time.

Since I don't use the cards every month and always pay the full balance when I do, I'm not accustomed to making a payment each month. I rely on receiving an email statement to serve as my cue to pay. A couple weeks ago, I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize and did reverse lookup on the caller. It was WFNNB. Panicked, I quickly logged in to check each account. To my shock and horror, my LOFT payment was past due. Come to find out, they changed the email address they send the statements from and my Gmail account was marking them as spam. I immediately called LOFT customer service and made a same-day payment on the full balance on the card. I inquired about credit reporting, and while they offered to remove my late fees, they said they'd already reported the account as delinquent to the credit bureaus  Frankly, I was (and still am) incredibly embarassed that this happened. 

I pulled my TransUnion report yesterday and it's listed under "Adverse Accounts" with a Pay Status of "Account 30 Days Past Due Date" but the March and April blocks are showing OK in the payment history. I haven't pulled the other reports. Will they eventually update this since the account is no longer past due?

As the only 'black mark' on my previously flawless credit record, I'd really like to get this removed if possible. I've found some great resources on this board, and I'm hoping that someone has some advice? Since I've paid in full, will the late note/adverse account eventually be removed? How will this affect my ratings, other accounts, etc?

I thought I could approach this one of two ways:

1. Write a goodwill letter to WFNNB/LOFT, explain the situation and ask them if they would reconsider the report made to the credit bureaus

2. Close the account and open a dispute (or goodwill letter?) with WFNNB, hoping that they'll remove the account from the reports altogether.

Or would you suggest something else? Wait and see?

Thanks very much for your advice.

[Anonymous]

Were you over 30 days late? Or just late? Do search for goodwill and see how they are with other people. Generally speaking much better luck if you are customer.

[Anonymous]

Btw do you have your scores and regulnar credit cards too (visa mc Amex)?

[pizzadude]

Keep calling them and asking them to remove the late payment.   Send GW letters too, just explain the situation as you have done here, maybe since it was a one-time mistake they will give you a break. 

I wouldn't advise closing the account, I don't think that will help you get the lates removed.

[improvingmycredit]

Hi jcar22!  Welcome to the forums!

I'd definitely not close the account unless you just don't use it.  Closing the account won't remove the 30 day late notice on your CR.  

The best that you can do is GW with them relentlessly in the hopes that they remove the late.  A lot of companies will do this for their best customers so I think you might have a good chance with some diligence on your part.  

Don't get too discouraged.  

Please try to remember, they don't have to remove it at all.  By law, they are supposed to report accurate information to the CRAs.  I really wish you luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all your replies and advice. 

I have a goodwill letter drafted. I'll keep the account open (I do use it!) and maybe after some repeated on-time payments they will respond favorably. I understand they have the right to report accurate information (and I was late), but I'm hoping for a bit of grace on their part since they changed how they were sending the statements. I was also angry that they didn't try to contact me until the account was 30+ days late. I even used the card in the store a few days before they called and they didn't bat an eye!

In response to some of your questions:

Looking back at my email account, the March (due 3/27) and April (due 4/27) statements went to my spam folder, so these were the two that I missed. I made the payment on May 3rd. I'm not sure how many days late that made me - I'd think more than 30 

I haven't pulled my FICO scores in many years. The last time I did was in 2007 when preparing to apply for a mortgage. It was high -- over 700 -- at the time. The most recent anecdotal evidence I have of my score was purchasing a new vehicle in 2010. We were approved for the lowest possible promotional APR of 1.9% on a new Acura. 

I rarely apply for new credit, always pay on time, etc. so I imagine it was (is?) still quite high prior to this event. I have several other cards (MC, Visa, Discover and AMEX) but only actively use the MC. It's used for all monthly expenses but also paid off/in full each month. 

[improvingmycredit]

Hey jcar22 - I did a little research and found on a couple of threads that some individuals had luck GWing this lender by writing an email or letter directly to the president of this company.  If I were you, I'd do the same since you've been such a long time loyal customer of theirs.  Doesn't hurt to try.  

[mindacid]

I would advise not to close the account and just be relentless in asking for the late to be removed.  It can't do any harm.

Although admittedly I'm not doing my part to save the planet., I prefer to receive paper statements and I open and read them the minute they come in.  That just saved me from the situation described in this post only about a month ago.  I pushed a payment out to a credit card from my checking account, but I must've not clicked the "confirm" button or something, so the payment never went out.  When I received the next statement and I opened and read it, I realized what had happened and I immediately made the payment directly from the creditor's web site.  I was only about 10 days past the due date, so I never got a 30-day late ding.  Whew. 

With the amount of email -spam and legitimate- that everyone receives,  I think it's very difficult to effectively track e-statements and notifications.  I know if I tried it'd be a disaster.

[ILBrian]

As an added tip for the future If the website allows such turn auto pay of min payment on at all times on all accounts... prevents a late from ever happening

[RyVision]

The last time a lender I was with planned on changing their email info, they sent me an email prior to doing so and to make sure I added it to my "allowed" inbox (whatever term, it's been a while but you get the idea).

After what you explained in your OP, I can't see how a GW letter would be much of a problem in getting the late removed, esp if you were signed up for electronic statement delivery.

Don't close the account, just write a polite GW email (probably including that you don't remember being notified of the change ahead of time) about how the situation occurred.  If it doesn't do the trick, move up the ladder as a poster above mentioned.