Cap 1 Over Credit Limit

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I am almost in tears and am hoping someone can give me advice. I have a new Cap 1 card. This month was my first payment due. I have increased my FICO from about 580 to 629/619/621 since last August. I keep a planner just for bills to make sure everything is on time. In the past 2.3 years EVERYTHING has been paid on time. It's a stellar history. I even get emails from Experian telling me so. However because of past blemishes my score is still in the low 600s. I paid off my last collection account in January and it was a PFD so I was stoked to see if in March I finally got closer to 640 because I'm trying to buy a house in the future or at least move into a nicer place.

Back to Cap 1. Payment due : 2/11. On 2/10 I paid in full via the app. After about 3 days I called them and asked if my payment was ok because I noticed the money was still sitting in my checking. The rep said theres nothing to worry about. I wake up today 2/15 at 7 am to see my cap 1 statement posted as : no payment /late, over the limit! And further a bunch of fees because of that. I immediately called them, paid off the entire thing over the phone and asked why this happened ...

The rep said I need to take it up with my bank. I will call them and see. There's more than plenty funds and the payment should never have bounced. But my concern is that now the damage is done. I'm afraid this statement will report to fico and lower my score. I asked the cap 1 rep for a goodwill adjustment given I cured it immediately and she said NO. I paid off the whole thing over the phone , even the unfair fees. All of it. Zero balance. I asked if they can print a second, accurate statement showing my payment so my score wouldn't drop. Again I was told no. Is there anything I can do about this ?

The junk fees I paid just now, the interest I paid which I shouldn't have because I had paid off the entire thing before due date ... none of that matters. Shame on Cap 1 for not offering to override those fees considering the facts. The $45 on garbage fees I don't care for. What makes me emotional is that I am sure my FICO WILL DROP because of this purported OVER CREDIT LIMIT issue. I don't know by how much but the fico simulator scared me.
Does anyone have advice on what I could do to remedy this ?

Does anybody know how much this quell hurt my score ?

[OmarGB9]

I would escalate to a supervisor in this case. If you paid before the due date, you should be good. That said, it's best to try to pay a bit sooner than just one day before the due date, in case things like this happen. Not saying it's your fault, but things happen sometimes and if you pay, say, at least a week in advance, you'd have time to rectify stuff before issues pop up.

On that note, call your bank too and see what happened. 

[Ficoproblems247]

Is your late payment only late by CapitalOne's due date? If that is the case, although it will certainly be an internal blemish with them, it does not report to the bureaus until the payment is a full 30 days late. It should not affect your score in any way. 

[Anonymous]

Yes, you're absolutely right. The late payment would be an internal issue with Cap1 because it's not over 30 days but what worries me is the fact that they've reported it as over my credit line limit as well. That over the limit info will reach the bureaus and that's what scares me.

[Anonymous]

Yes. It's a painful lesson to learn, I guess one day early isn't nearly enough. I will drive to my bank today and ask what happened. I appreciate your feedback. I will try and reach a manager at cap1. My main goal at this point is finding out if there's something I can do to prevent the bureaus seeing this as over the limit. I will never ever ever go past 10-15% utilization on a card again because this really really sucks. 

[OmarGB9]

Being over the limit isn't really a big deal, IMO. If anything it'll help your "highest recorded balance" show your usage. It's only prolonged maxed/over limit credit across multiple accounts (with different or the same lender) over several months that would begin to spook lenders. As for your FICO, it'll take a hit only because of the card being maxed out for that one month, but it'll quickly bounce back on the next cycle, so no harm done. FICO has no memory.

[Anonymous]

That's really good to hear! I hope it's true. On that note I do have a lingering question about the highest recorded balance. Do I aim for a utilization rate of about 30% overall OR can I use more as long as I pay it off entirely by the due date ?

I use my cards for gas, meals etc, I don't go shopping with them so paying off in full isn't an issue. 

[Jnbmom]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That's really good to hear! I hope it's true. On that note I do have a lingering question about the highest recorded balance. Do I aim for a utilization rate of about 30% overall OR can I use more as long as I pay it off entirely by the due date ?

I use my cards for gas, meals etc, I don't go shopping with them so paying off in full isn't an issue. 

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No don't let your card report over 30% utilization that will hurt your scores. Try to keep in under 8.9%. You can put more on the card but pay it down before statement cuts.

[silver_idle]

I would contact your bank and find out what happen on their end then come back to cap1 to see if they can provide more info if your bank cant. Furthermore, what you could do is see if they could waive any late and/or return fees. In the future, you might want to look into seeing if you can add your debit card to your account. That would make it easier to make payments and would affect your available credit right away.

[Jannelo]

I probably make three payments a month on my Cap1 cards, both of them.     I pay in full before the due date, except when I want one of those cards to report under 8.9 percent.  Then I leave that amount until the statement cuts, then PIF.  The one time I came close too close to it being due or paying it before the statement cuts, I actually didn't pay from the account.  I paid with the debit feature of the account, because it reports quicker.  I would never leave paying with an account a day before due as it seems to take several days for it to show.