How long until a 30+ day error drops off?

Anonymous · ‎08-31-2017

I'm purchasing a home with a co-borrower. Until apparently very recently, our credit scores were both near 800. Mine is still there, but the co-borrower had a store credit card that charged him a bad late fee (that went unpaid) that was just discovered this week. That has been corrected, and he owes $0 on the card. However, because the credit card is still reporting him as 30+ days late, his credit score per one of the score monitoring sites is now 675, which is very, very no bueno for mortgages.

The next statement date for the card appears to be September 24th, and I understand this is when the 30+ day error would be "fixed" with the credit bureaus? Do we really have to wait until then for him to not be considered late and his credit score to jump back up? The credit card company merely gave him a mailing address to file any "disputes," so doesn't look like there is any interest in re-reporting that he isn't late.

We were planning on signing a purchase agreement tomorrow, and then applying for mortgages, but that appears to be very much in jeopardy? No options available here?

Anonymous · ‎08-31-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm purchasing a home with a co-borrower. Until apparently very recently, our credit scores were both near 800. Mine is still there, but the co-borrower had a store credit card that charged him a bad late fee (that went unpaid) that was just discovered this week. That has been corrected, and he owes $0 on the card. However, because the credit card is still reporting him as 30+ days late, his credit score per one of the score monitoring sites is now 675, which is very, very no bueno for mortgages.

The next statement date for the card appears to be September 24th, and I understand this is when the 30+ day error would be "fixed" with the credit bureaus? Do we really have to wait until then for him to not be considered late and his credit score to jump back up? The credit card company merely gave him a mailing address to file any "disputes," so doesn't look like there is any interest in re-reporting that he isn't late.

We were planning on signing a purchase agreement tomorrow, and then applying for mortgages, but that appears to be very much in jeopardy? No options available here?

Welcome to MyFICO

Unfortunately that 30 day late payment isn't going away at the next statement date. Even though he has paid the card, it still will continue to report as a 30 day late for up to 7 years. While the effect of the 30 day late on his credit scores will diminish over time, that won't happen soon enough to help you two now given your timetable. His best option is going to be to contact the creditor both via telephone and in writing requesting a Goodwill removal of the late payment. The below link is a discussion and some examples of Goodwill letters. He needs to contact as any people as possible that may be in position to remove the late payment. At this stage, that's pretty much your only recourse. Disputing the late payment won't help if in fact he was 30 days or more late on the payment. Good luck and I hope that it works out for you two.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/GW-letter-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-GW-Success-Stories/td-p/1573680

Anonymous · ‎08-31-2017

Thanks for the reponse! The credit card is showing up as *currently late* though, which I assume is a lot bigger hit to your score? Is that correct or no?

My question is on the update from currently late to paid on-time. The current balance is $0.

I gather that we can fix the 30+ day late with a goodwill letter, but that switch from currently late to paid on-time feels like it is the big score plummeter in this equation.

(Go Irish, btw)

Anonymous · ‎08-31-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the reponse! The credit card is showing up as *currently late* though, which I assume is a lot bigger hit to your score? Is that correct or no?

My question is on the update from currently late to paid on-time. The current balance is $0.

I gather that we can fix the 30+ day late with a goodwill letter, but that switch from currently late to paid on-time feels like it is the big score plummeter in this equation.

(Go Irish, btw)

Whether it shows as 'currently late' or not, the score effect is the same as long as the 1 30 day late shows. It may be better looking once the balance is 0 to someone manually reviewing his reports but it doesn't make a difference in the scoring.