Goodwill Letters Failed - Customer Statement With Credit Bureau?

[Anonymous]

We are about to close on a mortgage and getting my report pulled again soon.

Sadly, I was unsuccessful getting a goodwill adjustment for a 30,60,90-day late marks from Comentiy Bank on a Toyota Rewards Visa.

I tried 2 rounds of goodwill letters and numerous phone calls. In desperation, I finally wrote a letter to the CEO (John Marion) and the President over Retail Credit Card Services (Melisa Miller). A woman called me back next day (today) saying she handled these for John and Melisa. While she "empathized", they had to follow regulations for all their clients and were unable to give me a goodwill adjustment. Not even of the 90-day mark alone! Same BS answer that I got at the call centers!! I shoulda said it was called "goodwill" for a reason, but I just thanked her for the call.

I spent so much time on those emails yesterday. So frustrating! But I suppose I can't force them into "goodwill".

Maybe the goodwill adjustments that people post on here were when Comenity had the prior CEO (Jay Coane).

I digress....

One of the things the woman mentioned was to file a customer statement with the credit bureaus so that lenders may review and consider.

Any thoughts? Is it effective? Would a mortgage company ever decide to ignore late marks?

[Jnbmom]

I feel your pain. I have a few lates on our current mortgage. I have tried numerous times to get them to remove, they refuse. Its my only blemish which I believe is holding my scores down a bit.

Personally I don't feel a comment bares any weight , but that's just my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Jnbmom!

I suspect you are right. I probably won't waste any more time getting that comment into the bureaus.

The late marks will come off eventually. 7 years? 😏

I will just make sure I don't give any of my business to Comenity Bank in the future.

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

One of the things the woman mentioned was to file a customer statement with the credit bureaus so that lenders may review and consider.

Any thoughts? Is it effective? Would a mortgage company ever decide to ignore late marks?

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There is absolutely no positive effect that can come from placing a customer statement on your CRA reports.

The lates will factor into your scores regardless, and nothing the mortgage lender would do affects that.  However, unless the lates are quite recent and on another mortgage line, they also won't care about them as long as your scores are good enough to qualify.

[Anonymous]

It has taken me 8-9 Rounds of GW letters to achieve a favorable result from a few lenders.  If I were to quit after just 2, I'd still have a dirty file today (and for a few more years).  The point here is don't give up after a few tries.  It can sometimes take many attempts.

[Jnbmom]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It has taken me 8-9 Rounds of GW letters to achieve a favorable result from a few lenders.  If I were to quit after just 2, I'd still have a dirty file today (and for a few more years).  The point here is don't give up after a few tries.  It can sometimes take many attempts.

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Oh I agree keep plugging, just statements I don't think matter.

I have tried atleast 20 times my mortgage company won't budge though 😠

[Anonymous]

Thanks BBS!

I would agree with you, but after I emailed the CEO and the President of Retail Cards Services for Comenity and their assigned person called me to say they won't help me with an adjustment, I don't know how else I could continue to write more rounds of letters.

Based on my last call, they can see in my file each of the 20+ letters I sent and the corresponding denial letter. Thus, I am sure my file was noted that I emailed those 2 executives and got denied.

The responses to my second round of letters said something like: "this is essentially the same request and documentation; therefore this is a duplicate".

Do you suggest I should continue to email the CEO periodically? Or rounds to the departments that I have been writing to? I don't want to err on the side of harassment in asking for goodwill.

[Anonymous]

Those reponses you received are standard protocol for the majority of lenders.  They should be ignored.  If you read through the Saturation Technique thread, you'll see I've received all of those same responses as well.  They told me additional requests would be ignored.  They weren't all ignored, as I eventually got the GW adjustments I was requesting.

[Anonymous]

Can you share the email address for the CEO of Comenity Bank.

[Anonymous]

Hi Janamom.  Can you clarify for us when you need these derogs removed?  My sense from your first post is that you need them removed extremely soon -- i.e. in the next couple weeks.  This is because you are about to close on a home purchase.

If so, there is almost no chance that you will get them removed in that timeframe.  The GW letter strategy is a long game.  It assumes that you are not deluging the company with gazillions of letters and phone calls during the same few weeks, but rather you have the luxury to slowly space them out for a period of many months.  That gives you the chance to reach new people and reduces the chance of you being flagged (as you point out) as a pest who's gone bat-sXXt crazy with letters.

There are other add-ons to the GW strategy that increase the chance of it working, but none of them would help in an abrupt timeframe.