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Bank of America late payment

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Anonymous
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Bank of America late payment

Has anyone ever had any success with Bank of America in getting a late payment removed from a credit report? I missed a payment on my BOA credit card during the terminal illness and death of my grandfather, who I was taking care of while he was under hospice dying of liver failure. I had completely forgotten to pay the card and it just got lost during all the turmoil. I've had the card for 15 years and never missed a payment, have a FICO of 795, and have over $200,000 of assets with BOA. From my understanding, this payment will drop my FICO 100 points once it shows up on my credit report. 

 

I called them Friday and the CSR told me there was nothing they could do now that it was reported, and just said she'd remove the late fee since I was dealing with a "hard time" even though it had nothing to do with not being able to pay the card. 

 

I am considering writing a good will adjustment letter, but I don't know where to send it, to see if they'll adjust given my history and relationship with the bank. Does that ever work? 

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
trnj88
New Contributor

Re: Bank of America late payment

Sorry to hear about your grandfather.. But these are the situations where goodwill letters definitely work. I have sent and had success with goodwill letters for Capital One, Citibank and a few others. The mistake people often make is sending them to the general Customer Service department at the bank via USPS/CMRRR. In my opinion this is a waste of time. Go straight to the top-- Google "Bank of America CEO email" and you should be able to find the CEO's email.

 

Write up a message explaining your situation and use your existing membership as leverage and send it to the CEO via email. It will probably get filtered by someone in the Executive Office, but these are the people who can help you. It typically will bypass the basic Customer Service level that will deny 99.9% of goodwills instantly. Emails will be faster in terms of response and I feel they have a higher success rate with goodwills than basic USPS letters.

 

If they see this was an obvious temporary hardship and that they have a lot to lose by losing you as a customer, they may be able to work with you.

 

Be sure to mention what Bank of America has done for you and that you're appreciative, etc etc.. It seems like-- from what I've read on these forums-- goodwills work better when you talk up the bank a bit while saying what your relationship means.

 

Good luck!!

Message 2 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Bank of America late payment

Thank you. I did read that emailing the CEO's email will be better. The CSR did nothing for me except waive the fees, which obviously I care little about as it wasn't about my ability to pay - it was due to the death which she didn't seem to understand.

 

I'll write something and email it to see if I get a response. I also own about 6,000 shares of BOA stock, so I'll be sure to mention that as well. We'll see if this works!

Message 3 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Bank of America late payment

Emailed the CEO yesterday and had a voicemail from someone from Bank of America last night around 5pm. I'll call them back today to see what it's regarding.

Message 4 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Bank of America late payment

Thats great turnaround time and should show you that they do in fact value you as a customer-  Always nice when the big companies let you know you matter!!

Message 5 of 7
trnj88
New Contributor

Re: Bank of America late payment

Nice, every time I have had a successful GW I have received a call from the Executive Office (a) asking for identify confirmation, and (b) asking for clarification on my issue. I think they want to make sure it was YOU who submitted the goodwill request since a lot of times credit repair companies will fake goodwill stories to try and get removals.. Just make sure they know you are valued and have a lot invested in BofA. I'm pretty sure if that if their brains are correctly attached to their heads, they will help you out given that you do have good business with BofA.

 

Best of luck

Message 6 of 7
Anonymous
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Re: Bank of America late payment

Spoke with a rep today and she basically said I was out of luck, and if something worse happened to just let her know. She said the "panel" she took it in front of deemed the hardship wasn't bad enough. The late payment is showing up on my TU score, but my credit actually went up? Which doesn't make any sense (went up 4 points to 783).

 

Either way, I am now considering moving my assets out of B of A if they don't really value any sort of relationship I have with them.

Message 7 of 7
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