Hi,
Just wanted to report some good news - About a week ago I emailed the CEO of Capital One (a simple google search will find this info for you - it's all over the internet) with my (true) tale of woe and asking for forgiveness on a 90 day late I received this past December on my old Orchard Bank card. I explained that I was a happy Capital One customer (also true!) with banking and Cap 1 platinum credit cards and that I was happy that Capital One took over my HSBC card (which I am. **more on this below).
Anyway, about 2 days later I received a call from a very nice but all-business woman from the office of the president. She wanted specific details about my situation along with a timeline. My particular issue was related to Sandy (long story, but essentially my husband experienced a total loss of income that made things very tough for about 3 months). I explained that I had taken advantage of Credit Protection on my other Capital One card, and that other creditors had offered a forbearance -without us even having to ask- in recognition of the natural disaster. In pointed out that I hadn't been late in several years and I also showed her that as soon as we had income again, I began making double payments to get the account caught up.
She said she would see what she could do and that I would hear from her again soon. Later that evening, I called in to general customer service to check on some payment arrangements, and the rep mentioned that my payment history was excellent with no lates in a while - so it sounded like the GW had worked! I just got the call from the woman I had been working with and she confirmed that she had deleted the lates from Oct through the present!
So -even though I felt really weird about emailing the CEO- it never hurts to ask (nicely), but I'm sure that had I not been proactive about getting the acct back on track before making the request, the outcome might have been different.
**I know that people like to refer to them as Crapital One, but honestly, in my experience they have been the most humane creditor to work with. Of course, YMMV, but besides this delete, they have also removed two sets of 90's from my husbands report from 2009 & 2007, and their online chat just offered to submit a dispute to all three CRA's to remove two sets of 90's from my Cap 1 platinum acct from 2007 - which, if it happens, would make my HSBC & Capital One acct completely blemish free.
ETA: had it not been for this board, I would never have thought to email the presidents office - so thanks for all of your help!
