Success disputing a Best Buy / CBNA late payment

[smoking_gnu]

Hi all,

A few weeks ago I was starting the car-buying process but was concerned that my scores (low 600s) wouldn't amount to a good rate. Part of that was due to a 90-day late payment from a Best Buy card I had in 2013. I've heard here and elsewhere that Best Buy/CBNA is notoriously stubborn with GW letters, so I figured I'd go straight to it and dispute the late payment mark with each bureau. Surprisingly enough, all three of them removed it in one week, bringing my score up by 58 points across the board! This was a tremendous help and I wasn't expecting such a fast turnaround time. Obviously no guarantee it'll work for everyone, but I figured I'd throw that out there for anyone else in a similar boat.

[fordguy89]

Wow that is great news can you post a copy of your wording?? I have had no luck with Citibank, if I did not have my citi derogs I would be at 760 minimum by now

[smoking_gnu]

Thanks! No letters or notes here - all I did was submit dispute reports via the TransUnion, Equifax and Experian sites. There's a section where you can select why you're submitting the dispute, and I selected the option that said "Incorrect Information" or something like that. 

[fordguy89]

You had late payments that were real and reported them as in correct anyway that sounds dangerous

[smoking_gnu]

Yeah, I was surprised when I read that at first, but from what I've heard some places won't want to bother spending time on the disupte process so they'll just ignore it or agree with it if your account was minor enough (in my case, 4 years old and for a $400 CL account). As far as I'm aware, the worst thing that could happen is that they just reply to the dispute with the equivalent of "Uhhhhh, no that's not" and your bureau keeps the late payment and marks the dispute closed (since that's going to happen anyway when people make mistakes). Of course, if I'm massively off-the-mark here someone can correct...but that's what the research I've done seems to indicate.

[Micbob4]

Not sure how you lucked out but most especially Citibank has a policy in place that will not remove late payment reported.

[brandnew86]

Congrats on the deletes! Did you submit via online, or did you write a letter?

Thanks!