@Anonymous wrote:It's ok, you're not wrong. Obviously we were carrying too much and relying too much on zero percent balance transfers. I hate that such a small mistake has led me here, but it's my own fault. I can only learn and try to stop the bleeding.
No worries! Credit is a long game, not a sprint. You'll land on your feet if you adjust from here.
@Anonymous Prior to the B&H closure how long had it been since your last negative effect from the Target mistake?
Consolidating it all into one loan with a lower payment isn't a bad thing, but I'm wondering if you're not overreacting.
You already have a mortgage, you both have cars with one paid off. From what you have said your current on all your current cards and loans.
Unless you need to lower your monthly expenses, or want to pay off that debt faster, your best option may be just to keep moving forward and let things fade to the past.
The B&H card closure may have had nothing to do with your credit or the late payment 2 years ago.
@Anonymous Look at it this way. You have low balances on certain cards, if you paid those off and sock drawered them it is one less bill each month.
That minimum payment for those little balances (say $25) you could apply to the bigger balances each month once they are paid off.
Each $0 on a balance means that much extra to put towards the larger balances.
@Anonymous wrote:Two years ago, in March of 2020, I missed paying off a $9 Target card charge. I thought a gift card covered the entire purchase, and didn't have auto pay set up yet. Target never sent any sort of electronic or mail communication until it was 90 days--at which point I obviously paid off the $9, when I realized my error.
A snowball of account closures ensued, and is STILL happening. I just lost a $6k account with B&H Photo --while I still carried a balance--. Up until this point, it has only been stray accounts that I let become inactive. Now I've lost I think 5 total accounts.
When on Earth will this end? My score has dropped because of the closures, causing more closures, and we're now 2 years past that 90 day ding with no other late payments. It feels rather like a noose tightening!
Sorry you're dealing with this unfortunate situation. I may have missed it in this thread, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I did, but did you try contacting Target about the $9? If they really didn't send you any communication until it was 90 days past due, that's a problem! You said that you paid it when you realized *your* error, but it was actually *their* error if they didn't tell you you had a payment/balance due.
At this late date I don't know how much, if any, good it would do to attempt sending a 'goodwill' request to have the negative info removed, but if I were you I'd give it a try. The worst that can happen is they say no. All the other bad stuff is already happening. A 'no' among all that won't be a big blow.
Even if you did contact them before, what about trying again? I'd attempt pointing out the ridiculous nature of having my credit destroyed by a *NINE* dollar payment you weren't aware of, and paid as soon as you were. This isn't like thousands of dollars; this is clearly an innocent oversight and I think any reasonable person would see it that way. I don't have any experience with the Target card, so I don't know how responsive or nice their CSRs are, but I think this is worth a try. You shouldn't have to suffer the way you are for such a paltry amount that was obviously an oversight.
