1 month late, caused 50 point drop

[tommyz1052]

So I had been consistently 730-740 for over 7 years, never missed a payment. I am a physician and make over now 400k a year. I have credit card and student loan debt. I also have a family and things always come up. But I pay things off.

My mortgage was bought by a servicer Freedom Mortgage..... A nighmare.  They have the worse customer service. For about a year they spammed me about a refi. I wasnt interested. Primarily if I would do it , it wouldnt be with them.

We had several terse conversations when they called at dinner, asking them to stop. 

I would pay monthly on their website, I didnt really trust them otherwise. I could swear I payed it last march. However the payment didnt go through. I never got a call, but when i got a letter I payed immediately and found there online payment. I setup a bank acct just for paying them.

They put a 30 day non payment despite my explanation of the scenario. I have seen many others with the same situation claiming their website was defective. I signed up with their new online payment, wrote letters and actually disputed it with them via credit reporting. I wrote them asking them, stating that my score took a dive of 50 points for over 20 years of payment history. 

They dont care, smuggly on the phone once they admitted they did not warn call me as company policy of the payment. But by law they arent responsible for anything. They said that by contract they have to be honest to the credit rating services.

So I have 1 late payment and it means alot.  Its seems unfair and arbitrary against my history and imho not a measure of my risk AT ALL.

 I see on many sites people in a similar situation, the CFPB site is full with complaints against them

Would a attourney or repair service work if I tried reporting these as a error?

[gdale6]

If its worth it for you to get those points back you might consider a consumer law attorney attempting to take care of this for you. Unlikely a repair service or CFPB complaint will resolve it. The CFPB is becoming more hostile to consumer complaints.

[tommyz1052]

ok, do you think the CFPB has hurt me? Should i retract it? 

I only did it at the very very end.

I was respectful, and it seems that the regular call in employees sided with me and spilt the beans on me not being called, and that be a company policy.

The decision makers are never reachable to talk to . You can only write a letter or email, and wait 7-14 business days.

Any recomendations? Looked at lexington law but it seems to have mostly what i have already ( myfico level stuff). I need a live person i think ....

[RobertEG]

It is unclear from the posted scenario as to why the payment was not credited.

Do you have any documentation to show that there was error on their part in not posting the payment?

If so, the first step would be to contact someone in their executive offices and ask for their review, and possible deletion based on error on their part.

If the creditor is denying responsibilty due to assertion that error is on your part, the first step should be filing of formal dispute with the CRA, including whatever documentation you have to support your assertion of error on their part.

That compels a formal investigation on their part, and either verification of the accuracy of their reported late, or its removal.

The legal significance is that a formal dispute is first required under the provisions of FCRA 623(c) before a consumer can pursue civil liability for inaccurate reporting.  You must get a formal verification before moving forward with a legal action  that will obtain review by the courts.  A consumer has no legal right to file their own civil action contesting the accuracy of credit reporting until they have filed a dispute and received verification from the creditor.  FCRA 623(c).

The CFPB will normally not intervene until a dispute has been filed and the investigation process has first run its course.

[tommyz1052]

So what I have is written 2 letters to them. They always go to their credit department.  I was paying through the website. In terms of proof, I really do not have proof of why the payment didnt go through.

I did upon advice sign up with their monthly online payment. Something that wasnt available when they bought my mortgage. In 4 years my lender has changed 4 times, they were the final one. 

I use citibank, and for some reason Freedom was not in the direct pay, so i would go on the website and enter info monthly. There are 2 screens to make a payment that way. And in fact it never would give a confirmation in hindsight.

Although I guess its my fault ultimately , I didnt notice it was "not paid" until i got a letter and paid it immediately.

Again advice was sign up for the Freedom Mortgages new online payment, write a letter asking that it be removed with the explanatation. Some of the employees did see the situation and opined that  it was the company policy to call and remind if no payment was made. They record those. No call was made.

Despite putting that in the letter i was denied for a changed based on the fact that they have to be honest based on their contracts with the credit agencies. I was told by them to take it up with the credit agencies, when I disputed the late payment, they used my letter I sent initially stating that I intended to pay, but had no proof it went through.

So the question is , since i tried myself do I try with a lawyer? Or just accept the 50 point drop. Its really depressing.  Considering I have had credit since 1991, never missed a payment.

Who does anyone recommend?

[RobertEG]

Involving a lawyer means you have issues of some noncompliance on their part with a matter of law.

What is the statute or regulation that you would assert as having been violated?

Involving an attorney might create confrontation that could reduce the chances of possible grant of a good-will deletion on their part.

[tommyz1052]

Honestly I dont know the regulation or statute.  If i did i probably wouldnt need a lawyer then.

I made a fair attempt at payment, something happened or didnt happen. Usually they will contact you by phone, they didnt.

I made a request for a good will, and I guess they turned it down.  And when I asked for a second look, the employee on the phone said, we didnt even call to warn you.  I used and modified the templates I saw here and online so I dont know what else to say to them.

Basically I think its unfair that 1 slip up, even if I accept blame will cost me thousands  to tens of thousands of dollars presumably 7 years from now, when I have NEVER missed a payment, never done collections EVER, since my first Amex card in 1990.

Student loans and other things count against me. But I pay my bills. So my 695 credit score seems very unfair to me.

RobertEG,  I guess I am done, just accept it?

[tommyz1052]

I looked at the answer again of robert. 

  I did try appealing with credit agency and before that did contact them , taking over 8 weeks for back and forth. They denied my goodwill request x2.

Can anyone point me to an expert who can take my case. Robert seems to know about the topic but didnt read or understand my response. I need help or to be told to just leave it and accept the consequences.

I intended to pay, i had the money and something didnt happen and it didnt. 

I am an adult, I can accept being told to just take the credit hit. And start saving and paying for big items in full. ( car etc)

[Shooting-For-800]

I would start making full mortgage payments every 2 weeks and print confirmations.  This should push your due date out so you will never be late again.  With your income, this should be easy.

I would create a nice typed letter explaining how impactful this is to you, your payment history, and your future interest in their HELOC programs and make 50 copies of it.  I would send this letter to 5 different addresses every 2 weeks.

Hopefully,  a month or two or three for now, someone will pull up your account and see that you were only late once and you are 2 or 3 months ahead on payments and removed the mark.

You can always hire a lawyer late if needed.

GL!

[tommyz1052]

so i sorta did that by accident,  i payed it several times to be sure,. But then signed up for there program were they take the money out monthly.

So for 1 whole month I was ahead and they waited.

So I will have to go out of the program and manually write a check because the electronic method seems to screw it up.

I wonder though, it was in March, its November do I have enough months ahead of me to try again?