I had an 808 credit score. I did a balance transfer for the whole amount of my balance. After that I didn't look back. Today 3 months later I check my credit score and it dropped to a 675. I called Bank of America and they said I needed to pay the payoff amount not the total balance. Is there anything I can do. I never had a phone call from Bank of America informing me I'm late nor any emails says my account is past due
So, just to make sure i'm understanding properly:
You had a balance on your BoA card which you transferred to another card, but you never went back to confirm that the BoA card still had a zero balance or that no interest was due in the month following the transfer/payoff. So now, 3 months later, you have a late payment (30 day? 60 day?) from BoA for a remaining balance post-transfer (assuming this balance consists of the trailing interest which would have been included in the 'pay-off' amount). And you never received any notification that payment was due/overdue so didn't know until it was too late...
Is that correct?
I just did sort of the same thing. 1 card showed a certain number as the current balance. I had another card with a zero int for 12 months bt offer. i transfered the current balance to the zero card but checked the original card about a week later and it showed a balance of 32.97, trailing interest.
It happened to me a few decades ago with a cap 1 card. i had a zero balance and didnt regularly check the account. the annual fee kicked in and by the time cap 1 mailed me a letter with big red letters on it i was behind 3 months and the 60 af balooned to a few hundred. i called cap 1 and explained what happened. they put me on hold and checked what i told them and then they reduced the amount to the af owed and erased any lates from my credit reports.
call them and explain, maybe you will get lucky.
In a nutshell that's correct
@housejunkie81 wrote:In a nutshell that's correct
Yea, unfortunately, there's not too much you can do other than request a goodwill deletion of the lates from BoA. the fact that you didn't receive any notifications of your account being overdue isn't going to help you much -- ultimately, it's your responsiblity to monitor your accounts, not theirs. They may be gracious enough to offer a goodwill deletion as a courtesy, given the balance was interest-only, if you take full responsibility of the oversight and point out your stellar past payment history -- to be clear, BoA is not famous for granting goodwills but it's certainly worth trying. Write up a letter (send by mail) - short and sweet, explaining the situation and asking them to consider removing the lates. You can mention the lack of notification - but, in doing so, be sure not to place blame on them - if mentioned, it should be more of a fleeting comment made as an attempt to explain your oversight.
Sorry this has happened to you. I truly hope you have success with a goodwill -- and if you should get a 'no' response the first time - wait a month and try again. You have the next 7 years to work on getting the late(s) removed so don't give up.
Who do i email? Do you have an address? Has anyone ever had a goodwill deletion? Will it really take 7 years for my credit score to bounce back?
@housejunkie81 wrote:Who do i email? Do you have an address? Has anyone ever had a goodwill deletion? Will it really take 7 years for my credit score to bounce back?
Here's the link to the "Bank of America Goodwill" search results for the forums: Search - myFICO® Forums... i suggest you read through - there are success stories -- the first post of the search results offers an address and email (see comments) which i assume is still valid as the post is from Jan 2022.
The lates stay on your reports for 7 years and will negatively impact your scores for the entire time, however, some points will be recovered gradually as the lates age..
@thornback wrote: ... Write up a letter (send by mail) - short and sweet, explaining the situation and asking them to consider removing the lates. You can mention the lack of notification - but, in doing so, be sure not to place blame on them - if mentioned, it should be more of a fleeting comment made as an attempt to explain your oversight.
Sorry to hear of your lesson from the "school of hard knocks" @housejunkie81, but @thornback gave you some good advice.
Yes, Goodwill letters do work sometimes, but I think I read a statistic once that it was about a 50/50 chance of success. Some lenders refuse to budge. Others are more generous. Definitely send it by SNAIL MAIL, and not just an email. Take time to write a nice professional-looking letter and have someone proof-read it for you. Usually, you want the lender's address that is published on your credit report. I'm not sure I would mention a "lack of notification" as that sounds like you're dismissing ultimate responsibility. Lenders send statements monthly (whether paper or electronic), and it's always our responsibility to check them. You want to make sure to accept responsibility for the error, explain what you've learned and what you've done to prevent future occurrences, and to beg forgiveness. Persistence matters. As thornback said, you've got up to seven years and sometimes an additional letter or two can meet the right eyes. If initially unsuccessful, consider contacting someone further up the totem pole, perhaps even as high as eventually going to the CEO's office. The worst thing that can happen is they say "no."
I had a 30-day late once due to a mail mix-up on a brand-new account. After two Goodwill letters, that lender still refused to remove it and it stayed on my reports for the full seven years. It was highly annoying but the impact on my FICO greatly diminished after the first two or three years. However, there was some marginal score impact for the entire time. Lates are worse if they are reported 60/90+ days and when they are fresh.
Just to be sure, do you understand what happened and how it happened? We do, but we want to be sure to help you prevent this kind of misunderstanding in the future. Let us know if you have questions and best wishes with those Goodwill letters! (If you do a web search for Goodwill letter examples, you can find some suggestions of how to write one but make it your own.)
Well said, @Aim_High.
My preference for goodwills is also snail mail - mainly because a paper letter is more likely to receive a thorough reading and to make a connection with the reader than email.
@housejunkie81 wrote:I had an 808 credit score. I did a balance transfer for the whole amount of my balance. After that I didn't look back. Today 3 months later I check my credit score and it dropped to a 675. I called Bank of America and they said I needed to pay the payoff amount not the total balance. Is there anything I can do. I never had a phone call from Bank of America informing me I'm late nor any emails says my account is past due
You've gotten some excellent advice; hopefully, by carefully following it, you'll get this issue resolved.
But I'm wondering about down the road. What has this lesson taught you? For example, have you gone in to each of your credit card accounts and updated your notification settings? Are you sure all of your personal information is up-to-date, such as e-mail address, physical address, phone number, etc.? I would check all of that, making any updates that are needed, and set alerts for everything that might happen on an account: payment becomes due, payment becomes past-due, a charge is made on the account, you're approaching your credit limit, you're so many days away from your payment due date, and so on. You need to hone in on WHAT failed, and why--and then make sure it can't happen again. I have alerts set on all my accounts for even the most trivial things, like if $0.01 is charged, I get notified!
Also, you might want to consider setting up auto-pay for all of your accounts. I'm personally not a big fan of this, as I prefer to micro-manage every aspect of my finances, but for some people this is a truly valuable tool that can prevent a scenario like yours.