Discover Goodwill - EO Response and Added Inaccurate Reporting Data

[Anonymous]

I sent a goodwill letter to a slew of email addresses on 3/6/19 and I recieved an alert that my payment history had been updated a few days later.. I was hopeful they removed the lates or tradeline completely but after looking at my credit report, they ADDED 3 lates to an account that has been closed for almost 3 years. Below is the GW letter I sent and letter received back from the EO in the mail today.

Here's the goodwill letter I sent: 

I was a Discover Card customer from 2011 to 2016 and very much enjoyed the experience. Currently, I am writing to see if you would be willing to make a "goodwill" adjustment to your reporting to the three credit agencies.

According to my credit report, I have two (2) 30-day late payments on the above referenced account which are dated 9/2014 and 5/2015. I also have one (1) 60-day late payment which is dated 6/2015, as well as one (1) 90-day late payment which is dated 7/2015.

These late payments were due to me being a recent college graduate and struggling to find work to be able to keep up with all of my bills. These payments have hindered my ability to obtain credit in the past and are now posing as an obstacle as I attempt to purchase a home. Since, I have learned many financial and money management skills to avoid these mistakes from happening again. I don’t say this to justify why the payments were late, but rather to show that this is not a good indicator of my credit worthiness.

Before and since this incident, I maintained an excellent payment history during my tenure of being an account holder and would like to request the removal of these negative payments. I hope that Discover Card is willing to work with me on erasing this mark from my credit reports.

It is my sincere hope that Discover Card is willing to work with me on erasing these marks from my credit reports. I was a very happy customer in the past and hope to one day establish a new relationship with Discover Card. 

In closing, I thank you in advance for your consideration and look forward to hearing from you on this matter. I do recognize that my request is unique and that it may not be normal policy for Discover Card, but I'm hoping that Discover Card will remove these late payments from my credit reports. I look forward to your reply.

Very Sincerely,

Here's the letter I received from the EO:

"Thank you for your recent email correspondence dated March 6, 2019 addressed to Roger Hochschild, Chief Executive Office at Discover. To ensure your concerns are address as efficiently as possible, your email has been referred to my attention, at the Executive Office of Customer Advocacy at Discover.

We regret to hear of your previous situation, and we applaud the steps you are promptly taking to solidify a strong financial future. We are unable to remove the deliquencies reporting on your account, as we are committed to complete and accurate credit bureau reporting... blah blah blah...

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to address your concerns. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me at the telphone number below."

The lates in question from 2015 remain on my credit report. However, they reported "on time/current" for March and April 2018..then 30 days late 5/18, 60 days late in 6/18 and 90 days late in 7/18. Then on time/current from Aug 18 to Jan 2019. I'm not sure why they added the lates in 2018 since the account was closed and had 0 balance in 2016, with "not reported" every month since. Any suggestions on next steps to resolve, perferrable anyway to have the entire tradeline removed, but if not, back to reporting the original but accurate status?

[gdale6]

Welcome to the board. Now you need to dispute with the CRAs those lates in 2018 as they are false if it closed in 2016 with 0 balance. The only 2 that are going to hurt the entire time they are on file is the 60 and 90 that are legit these are considered major lates. 30 days tend to only affect Fico for 2 years.

[Anonymous]

@gdale6 thank you so much for your help. Do you think I should send additional goodwill letters to the email address I had success with until they agree to remove the lates and/or the tradeline entirely?

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@gdale6 thank you so much for your help. Do you think I should send additional goodwill letters to the email address I had success with until they agree to remove the lates and/or the tradeline entirely?

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I have never used email to request good will. I used the US Mail to mail a personalized letter to the CEO and it is what I would suggest as mailing said letter makes it more personal over an email. You only want to remove the entire TL if it is a CO as once the lates age off or get commuted then the account becomes a net positive the entire time it remains on your file.

[mowheat73]

Do you have the email addressed where you sent your goodwill request?

[KJinNC]

I suggest reading about the goodwill letter saturation method. There is a thread here somewhere.

The basic concept is to find every physical mailing address and ideally, a number of individuals or at least roles at the company that you can mail printed letters. Come up with a good letter that is one sheet of paper. Mail a bunch of copies to the various addresses/names/roles you've found on Monday and then do it again on Thursday. The reason for this is so that the weekday people and the weekend people will both open letters, increasing the number of different individuals who receive the letter. Repeat indefinitely.

The main idea is that the more people read your letter, the better your odds. It doesn't matter if 10 people say "no" and even if another 10 say "hell no" as long as one says "yes."

IMO, your letter is good, as long as it fits on one sheet of paper, or can with minor cuts.

Just for the record, the first thing they tend to say is "we are required by law to report accurately, so we can't make the change you want." Or if not by law, then by "our agreement with the credit bueaus." Yes, they are required to report accurately, eg they can't say you owe $1,000 if you actually owe $500. But they are not required to report at all, so removing a late or an entire TL is perfectly legitimate, and something that happens many times every day.

Good luck!