First time making a late payment of 30 days or more. What now?

[Anonymous]

My credit history has been pristine for the past 15+ years: credit utilization of less than 5%, always pay my bills on time, and scores ranging from 800-855. Somehow—and I honestly have no idea how it happened—I forgot to make the April payment on my auto loan and VW Credit reported it. 

I was astounded by how much some of my scores dropped (100+ points) and am beside myself. I've now emailed two executives and will be writing a letter asking for a goodwill adjustment, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to possibly get this blemish removed from my report. I've pleaded with their customer service department on numerous occassions today, but they all shot me down and said there's nothing they can do about it.

I realize that the responsibility lies solely on me, but it's a tough pill to swallow when you're punished so harshly for one slip up.

[FinStar]

At this point, all you can do is see whether their executive team (or someone from their staff) is receptive of your GW request.  Same thing with the letter in the event you plan on a GW saturation technique.  And, if you exhaust all those options and the blemish remains, then you've done all that you can.

Unfortunately, when scores are at those levels, any major derogatory can bring them down substantially.  Hopefully, you'll hear something positive and provide any updates depending on how things progress.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Keep trying the goodwill route and tout your track record. Hopefully you find the right person who can understand.

One reason i do not like this credit system is it only takes one slip up or mistake to ruin things , all the years one does things right have little meaning once a derog pops up whether accidental or not. One reason i put very little stock in a credit score. 

Best of luck on getting it removed.

[AlmostNJ]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My credit history has been pristine for the past 15+ years: credit utilization of less than 5%, always pay my bills on time, and scores ranging from 800-855. Somehow—and I honestly have no idea how it happened—I forgot to make the April payment on my auto loan and VW Credit reported it. 

I was astounded by how much some of my scores dropped (100+ points) and am beside myself. I've now emailed two executives and will be writing a letter asking for a goodwill adjustment, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to possibly get this blemish removed from my report. I've pleaded with their customer service department on numerous occassions today, but they all shot me down and said there's nothing they can do about it.

I realize that the responsibility lies solely on me, but it's a tough pill to swallow when you're punished so harshly for one slip up.

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I would kill for a 750 score.  But that's me. 

[Anonymous]

That's what I don't understand! I opened my first credit card about 16 years ago and have since had multiple cards, auto loans, and a mortgage. I haven't missed a single payment until now, yet you'd think I was defaulting on payments left and right given the severity of the drop.

It's bull**bleep**!

[coldfusion]

Are you sure you only missed 1 payment?  If you missed 1 payment you would be late and there may be a penalty from the lender associated with that, but a single late payment doesn't lead to a reported derogatory event.   A 30 day late, which can and often does trigger a 100+ point drop in scores,  requires you to miss 2 payments in a row.

[Anonymous]

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@coldfusion wrote:

Are you sure you only missed 1 payment?  If you missed 1 payment you would be late and there may be a penalty from the lender associated with that, but a single late payment doesn't lead to a reported derogatory event.   A 30 day late, which can and often does trigger a 100+ point drop in scores,  requires you to miss 2 payments in a row.

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I don't mean to sound rude, but did you actually read the title of my post or the post itself?

I made a payment that was 32 days past due, hence the derogatory mark on my report. It's the only payment I've ever made in my entire life that was 30 days or more past due.

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't mean to sound rude, but did you actually read the title of my post or the post itself?

I made a payment that was 32 days past due, hence the derogatory mark on my report. It's the only payment I've ever made in my entire life that was 30 days or more past due.

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Hi and welcome to the forums 

I am pretty sure they read it and while it's inaccurate that you need to miss two payments for 30 day late, it indicates at least 52 days have passed between payments. 

With that said, they are trying to help you. I understand your frustration, I hope GW works, but please, no venting towards other members.  

[Slabenstein]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That's what I don't understand! I opened my first credit card about 16 years ago and have since had multiple cards, auto loans, and a mortgage. I haven't missed a single payment until now, yet you'd think I was defaulting on payments left and right given the severity of the drop.

It's bull**bleep**!

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For the classic FICO score versions, score drops are meant to indicate increased risk that a borrower will have at least one late of 90D or more sometime in the next 24 months.  The assessment of that risk comes from FICO's analysis of historical credit profile data, and the penalty for a single late payment w/ a previously perfect history is so large because the historical data showed a substantially increased frequency of a late of 90D or more in the following 24 months among borrowers that went from no reporting lates to one recent 30D vs. borrowers that continued to have no reporting lates.  It's definitely frustrating to see a single, minor negative change pull down a score so much when there's so much other positive credit history in your file, but unfortunately w/ the way FICO scoring works a lot of postive credit history in a report doesn't swamp or drown out a little bit of recent negative credit history. 

[Anonymous]

So, should I assume that it's going to take two years of never missing another payment for my score to bounce back? And even then, given that 30-day lates stay on your record for seven years, should I also assume that the likelihood of me getting back to an 800+ score is highly unlikely until the full seven years have passed?