HELP!!! Comenity is trying to destroy me for no reason!!

[Anonymous]

Long story short here...My husband and I are divorcing after 25 years.   When he left I had bad credit.  I did some rearch and talked to some credit counseling people who said to get some department store cards .  I obtained several through Commenity.   I have been keeping the balances pretty reasonable and in the year and a half I have had these cards I have made ALL the payments on time with the exception of ONE this month.  I accidentally missed a Victoria's Secret payment.   Commenity called me and the day I became aware I made the payment.   In addition, I have paid the balances in full on three cards since January.  I have a couple others that have (and never had) any balances.  I was using them to show unused credit.   Now all of the sudden Commenity has closed two of the three accounts I have paid off!   They are also dropping several of my credit limits so now it looks like I have maxed out my cards !!!  My credit utilization ration has gone up significantly now and my credit score has dropped 50 points in three days!!!!!    I still have several cards through them.  If they do this for all of them they are going to destroy the credit rating I have worked so hard to rebuild and detroy me!!!  I no longer have my husband's credit.  I dont' know what to do!   When I called and ask them why they said due to "no activity and updates to my credit report"  My credit report is better when I took out the cards!!!   And I thought the user agreement said they could close after no activity for 36 months.  I havent even had them that long.   I don't know what to do.  Should I try corporate??  Should I close the ones that have zero balances so it least it doesn't ding my report that THEY closed them??  Help!  When my divorce is final I have to find a permanent place to live and I cant if they tank my credit. 

[Anonymous]

how late were you on the payment?

[Anonymous]

Sorry but you are being “balanced chased”. This can happen when you get extended credit with low scores. (Especially when you have multiple new accounts with one creditor. They keep a close eye on your account and the minute you  exhibit risky behavior they take adverse action.

(Wether you close them or the bank closed them makes no difference to your score. It may look better on manual review but that’s it.)

What are your scores? You are better off going with a secured card from a major bank than store cards. Try the Capital One and Discover prequal link on their sites. If you are not preapproved for anything then try getting a secured card from Discover, Citi, or Bank of America.

Check the “Rebuilding” section of this site for examples of how people rebuilt their credit.

[Anonymous]

It was due on April 5th. I paid it the 15th when they called

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the troubles you’re going through.

The hard truth is that you were late on a payment to the lender and were apparently carrying a balance on other cards with them also and have dictated the position you are currently in with the lender. Your late payment spooked them and they have made some risk-based decisions to limit their exposure to you.

It helps to remove the emotion from this and look at the situation objectively. When someone misses a payment, that many times indicates a financial problem. The bank’s responsibility is to limit the risk they have should this trend continue.

It’s never ideal to revolve balances for any extended period of time. It’s never ideal to revolve a balance for any period of time on a store card; the interest rates are typically very high. Building credit does not mean that you have to carry a balance.

I wouldn’t take any action with the cards besides paying the remaining balances as quickly as possible. You should be prepared that they will continue to balance chase you. There is nothing you can do about it now. Let the cards fall where they may and build your history back up.

Good luck to you.

[patoot10]

Sorry OP

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Comenity-Cards-Closed/td-p/5443238

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
It was due on April 5th. I paid it the 15th when they called

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If you were only 10 days late it means that this wasn't reported as a 30 day late to the bureaus, correct?  That would be much more impactful to the situation and something that would stick with you for 7 years.  10 days late is no big deal and probably resulted in a $35 late fee or something similar.  As far as your cards being closed and/or balance chased, don't worry about it.  Store cards aren't ideal by any means and you should be looking toward major bank cards.  Your scores will be fine if you give them time, keep utilization low and never miss a payment.

[Shooting-For-800]

If it was me, Inwould check for pequals at Cap One and Discover.

Opening a couple of cards with better limits would help your utilization.

GL!

[HeavenOhio]

Welcome, @Anonymous.

You're going to land on your feet. The most important thing is that the 30-day late isn't going to hit your credit report.

Your credit counselor gave you bad advice when he told you to go for store cards. All they do is cause clutter. A bunch of store cards can lead to denials for too many recently opened accounts. Issuers of major cards (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Discover) see a bunch of low-limit cards and don't feel inclined to give you anything better. And the two biggest issuers of store cards — Comenity and Synchrony  — get skittish, particularly if you have several of their cards.

A store card or two is fine once you have some major cards in place and see some gaps you can fill. With a couple of major cards reporting, the store cards may even come in with usable limits. The bottom line is that store cards aren't good builder cards. If you absolutely must get a store card early in the building process, limit it to one card.

But that's water over the dam. You want to get a major card in the relatively near future. I'd look into this when your youngest card (open or closed) is six months old. At that point, your menagerie of cards should start to work for you rather than against you. After another six months has passed, you should be in the position for another major card.

You'll also want to look into how you handle your payments. Many set autopay to the minimum payment. That'll avoid accidental lates. Or you could decide to pay your balances more frequently. That would have you paid in full well before the due date.

[NRB525]

Sorry for your troubles OP, but Comenity isn’t trying to destroy you, so let’s clear that up   As noted above by others, this missed payment may have a late payment fee, but Comenity did you a favor by giving you a call so it did not turn into a 30-day late. ( If they wanted to hurt your score, their Minions could have said “Don’t call her”, but they aren’t interested in devious movie plots ).

The act of closing a credit card is not negative on your credit report. I have many closed accounts on my file, some closed by the bank, some I closed, others closed by Minions, it’s all the same on your report. The main thing is you don’t want 30-day Lates, so setting up autopay on all accounts is a very good idea.  

The suggestion to try Capital One ( not to be confused with Credit One ) or Discover are good ideas.  The store cards have limited usefulness unless it is something like Target or Walmart where you can get groceries. Having a major bank card is a more useful credit tool.  Can you list out which store cards you have? It may be possible to upgrade one of these to a VISA or MC or AMEX version, that may help you get the general spend at a wider range of merchants.