Car payment

[Anonymous]

I've made a concerted effort to pay down my credit cards over the past 5 years and finally achieved an 800 score.  I fear that I may have now have messed it up.

My current situation:

-- No late payments ever reported.  
-- 30 year credit history

-- Mortgage

-- Revolving credit usage: 15%
-- 1 auto loan

-- Credit score:  815

For some reason, my auto loan payment to Toyota Financial Services didn't process on February 28.   I was unaware of this until I logged in today (March 30)  to make my current month payment.  (I was on vacation when the statement came.).  Once I realized that my February payment was past due, I made an immediate payment that posted to my account today.  I also paid the amount that is due on March 31st.  So I am up to date now.

Shortly after that, I received a call from Toyota.  The rep either said that I had a payment that was 31 days past due or was about to be 31 days past due.  I wasn't paying much attention.  I told him I had made the payment online, and that was it.

After he hung up I started thinking about it and realized that the fact that I made a payment 30 days late could be a big problem.  I know that with credit cards, a payment isn't reported as late until you also completely miss the next payment.   But does it work this same way for auto loans?

My questions:

1). Will Toyota report this a late payment?

2). If they do, how will it affect my ability to finance another vehicle purchase 4 months from now through my credit union?

How much damage have I done?

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Assuming your due date is the last day of the month as a best case scenario, you were still 31 days late with your Feb payment. When it reports, you'll see a huge score hit, quite possibly in the 60-80 point range. You can try to get them to not report it, but I heard TFS isn't very forgiving. Luckily, you'll still have a good score, but the recent derogatory may be a problem for the next couple of years.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

To be clear, if a payment is 30 days late, it can be reported. Has nothing to do with the next months payment. Sorry, push for a good will non-report or deletion.

[barca]

Call customer service and ask to speak to credit reporting dept.

most banks have this dept . I know capital one does. 

if this is the first time it is happening - they might be forgiving. 

imo - it is a good idea to form a habit of checking your accounts couple of times a week.

especially credit cards with so many fraud going on.

even loans to avoid this kind of payment issues.

most banks/lenders have mobile apps now, so it is a good idea to be monitoring those accounts.

[4sallypat]

TFS can be forgiving but you will have to call them and ask them not to report the late.

It would help if you can find out if the payement didn't post because it was your bank's issue...

For the future enroll in autopay, like all my car payments, they are all auto pay each month and I have never missed a payment.

[W261w261]

I would not only arrange for autopay, but also arrange to pay a full month in advance, e.g. make the payment that is due on May 1 tomorrow. This gives you more slack. I do this with my son's health insurance, which cancels at 30 days late, then you have to wait until open enrollment at the end of the year to sign up again (a disaster). 

[W261w261]

Thinking about this strategy, I realized that I generate the insurance payment through my bank, I don't have Anthem pull it. Toyota may not be able to pull it out of synch as I suggested, but you can use your bank's bill payment system. 

[OmarGB9]

Unfortunately yes it would be a late payment that would get reported to the bureaus. I'd suggest calling and trying to move up the chain and pleading your case, along with setting up autopay to avoid this in the future and sending out goodwill letters as well.

[FlaDude]

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@W261w261 wrote:

Thinking about this strategy, I realized that I generate the insurance payment through my bank, I don't have Anthem pull it. Toyota may not be able to pull it out of synch as I suggested, but you can use your bank's bill payment system. 

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If I made a payment on any of my current loans on April 1 for the May 1 amount due, the payment would be applied to principal and would not count as the May 1 payment since the payment is before the statement date. I know some loans (student loans that I've seen) do apply advance payment to future payments and push out the next payment due date, but my car loans and consolidation loans don't.

[incognitony]

They may not report it as late because you made both payments before the next due date. They may just report where you were on the 1st, which was current. I 've known of other car financing places to report to the bureaus like this.