Late fee gets me a 30 day late!?

[cartwrna]

Hey! So I haven't been on the forums in forever but have ran into an issue after many years of correcting my credit. Had an auto loan and I was late past the grace period. Made the required payment at 20 days past due. Just got a 30 day late payment on my credit report and was flabbergasted. Called the bank and the guy I talked to wasn't very kind. Basically said I got the 30 day late because a late fee of $9.70 was added to the payment and I didn't pay the $9.70. Is this right? Shouldn't the late fee be reflected on the next month's payment? Is there anything I can do? 

[Jeffster1]

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@cartwrna wrote:

Hey! So I haven't been on the forums in forever but have ran into an issue after many years of correcting my credit. Had an auto loan and I was late past the grace period. Made the required payment at 20 days past due. Just got a 30 day late payment on my credit report and was flabbergasted. Called the bank and the guy I talked to wasn't very kind. Basically said I got the 30 day late because a late fee of $9.70 was added to the payment and I didn't pay the $9.70. Is this right? Shouldn't the late fee be reflected on the next month's payment? Is there anything I can do? 

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That makes no sense. IMHO, that late fee should be on the following month's bill.

Which bank was this? Maybe someone would have some insight if the bank name was known. 

[cartwrna]

It's a credit union, Collins Community Credit Union in Iowa. 

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@Jeffster1 wrote:

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@cartwrna wrote:

Hey! So I haven't been on the forums in forever but have ran into an issue after many years of correcting my credit. Had an auto loan and I was late past the grace period. Made the required payment at 20 days past due. Just got a 30 day late payment on my credit report and was flabbergasted. Called the bank and the guy I talked to wasn't very kind. Basically said I got the 30 day late because a late fee of $9.70 was added to the payment and I didn't pay the $9.70. Is this right? Shouldn't the late fee be reflected on the next month's payment? Is there anything I can do? 

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That makes no sense. IMHO, that late fee should be on the following month's bill.

Which bank was this? Maybe someone would have some insight if the bank name was known. 

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[ForwardLooking]

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@cartwrna wrote:

Hey! So I haven't been on the forums in forever but have ran into an issue after many years of correcting my credit. Had an auto loan and I was late past the grace period. Made the required payment at 20 days past due. Just got a 30 day late payment on my credit report and was flabbergasted. Called the bank and the guy I talked to wasn't very kind. Basically said I got the 30 day late because a late fee of $9.70 was added to the payment and I didn't pay the $9.70. Is this right? Shouldn't the late fee be reflected on the next month's payment? Is there anything I can do? 

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Sorry this happened.  This does make sense and is probably correct if you read you contracts and loan agreements.  Usually in this case, the late fee would have been assesed immediatly on the first day you were late.  When you made your payment 20 days late, they first applied the money you paid to the interest and new late fees, and then the remaining towards your principal obligation, resulting in a deficit of $9.70 towards principal assuming you paid only the normal scheduled payment amount.

The good news is that a 30 day late is not the end of the world.  Just keep up on on-time payments moving forward and if you ever find yourself in a similar situation again, call the creditor and ask what is needed to bring the account current.  Idealy, if you can, prepay your autoloan by a couple of months so this becomes a non issue.  I keep mine paid 3 months in advance.

[JoeRockhead]

Unless there is specific language in your contract to the contrary, or if you paid it on line, it should have shown you what your minimum payment due was (including the late fee) at the time you made it. Generally late fees are added to the next statement cycle (giving you proper notice of your new minimum payment due for that cycle).

If you made your full minimum (regular) monthly payment before it was 30 days past due, you made your payment on time. Therefore, I would first reach back out to the creditor and ask to speak to a supervisor if you have no luck with a first level CSR. If you've never been late before, or were unaware of the late fee when you paid, politely ask them to waive the fee, or ask them to make it due with your next payment, but more importantly, ask them to correct the inaccurate reporting of the 30 day late since technically your minimum monthly payment was made before it was 30 days late. 

[FireMedic1]

Question. If you logged in and saw the late fee was added to the regular payment. That would make more sense. Was the payment made online?

[cartwrna]

The payment was made from my bank login using an external transfer. I don't look at anything just sign in and make the payment. After looking today I'm setup for e statements, but have never received any. When I try and look at the statements in my account it says none are available. When you make the payment, it doesn't tell you the payment amount due on the payment screen just let's you setup a transfer for whatever amount you need or would like. I emailed them a letter in regards to the statement thing and also made the account current in hopes they will goodwill remove it. It dropped my experian FICO to a 622. Not sure on my other scores yet.