late payment fico score down by 81 points

[adavis425]

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

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@disdreamin wrote:
OP, don't you receive statements for your accounts, even those on auto-pay, either electronically or by mail? I'm struggling to see how it would get to *two* missed payments unless you didn't read your statements or didn't reconcile your bank account at least once a month (and I can't imagine going that long without doing so).

The fact that this same thing happened last year with the same card should have put up red flags. I would think you would be very diligent about confirming the auto-pay went through each and every month to avoid a repeat of that scenario. And how did you catch it within one week last time but this time it was more than two months?!

And lastly, you aren't down 81 points due to one missed payment, you are down due to at least TWO MONTHS of missed payments. You went past the due date by *60 days* - or more! I'd do as others have suggested above, to try and avoid a recurrence of this.

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+1 OP, sorry you took such a hit, but disdreamin is right. With credit, you can't repeatedly let things slip, even if it is partly the fault of some malfunctioning automated system.

Here's what I do. Same as others have reported, I set up minimum autopays for every card*, including ones I seldom use. Then I also set up a variety of notifications on the cards so I get email when payments are due, I get email each week telling me the balance, etc.

As the payment date nears, I doublecheck my autopays, deleting (for that month only) the ones where I don't actually owe anything and increasing the ones where I have balances.

Then I make sure that the bank's billpay system notifies me when each payment goes out and I check my cc accounts a day or two later to make sure that the payment has been properly credited.

Does this sound obsessive or fanatical? Maybe. But it takes only a few minutes in all and it ensures that there are no slipups. Credit management demands personal attention and that's all there is to it.

* Personally I always push pay from my bank to the card rather than setting up payment via the card website. This lets me manage all my bills from one website, but that's a personal preference.

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Wow, OP. Sorry about the drop.

I have autopay set up as well on all accounts as a fail-safe, insuring that I NEVER miss a payment because it will at least pay the minimum should I not get to it. Like Gunnar419, I check them almost obsessively. I generally PIF before the statement date simply out of habit, but I still check each account on its due date and the day before the statement cuts in case something pops up. Fortunately, I have never had autopay malfunction, but if it did I'd catch it almost immediately.