First off, being Autistic, when I am upset, which I am now, I have extreme executive dysunction, including difficulty in sequencing, forgetting words, etc. So...please be patient.I imagine I will come off as "rambly" and I apologize in advance.
During late Summer or early Fall, after years of not giving my credit a second thought [I know, dumb, but it used to be quite good] I decided that I would start using credit again, for the purpose of earning free airline points. I checked my credit, and my FICO score [Experian] was quite low.
I am a senior citizen, and shortly after my ex-husband retired , I divorced him.[ a year and a half ago] He was being sneaky, especially with finances, and just kindof all around not nice. He didn't seem at all the same person.Shortly after divorcing him, he was diagnosed with early stages Alzheimers. He is back in my home. I take care of him. We get along great now that I understand the "Why" of his behavior [ he had been so sneaky, in attempts to cover his confussion, that I even thought with his strange behavior that he was cheating, but he was not]
Back to when I checked my credit, there were a few bills that I thought he had paid, that were not. So, I realized that it would be awhile before free airfare but started working on my credit by paying the late bills in full [ I had not started studying this forumn at that point, so I did not bother with paying to delete. So, I knew that it would take time that I probably do not have, as I am in remission for breast cancer [even with reconstruction, no need for a bra! Silver Lining!] and since the average Autistic person with any co-morbidities has a lifespan of 30 years less than average person [ some, but not all of that due to high suicide rate, which is not an issue for me] I wanted to get my credit good again.
So, I got everything paid off. There was ony one issue, that I thought would be easy to take care of.In early 2012, my husband and I bought a very nice camper trailer [slept 9, outdoor kitchen complete with grill, microwage, mini fridge, stove, little sink, and this was before even entering the camper] and moved it permanently to Mountain Air Ranch in Colorado [ perfect for me and my disabled son, because, if you are Autistic, clothes hurt] During the period while we were going through a divorce, we agreed that we were going to take turns using the camper [the list to get a site is years long] and I agreed to make the payments.
So, I continued making payments, and when Bobby and I got back together, it was Winter. Bobby had been the last person to use the camper. And somehow accidentally flooded the trailer. After I realized Bobbys problems' and we got back together, we decided that we were going to sell the camper, but first we wanted to spend a last week there before putting it on the market. I believe this was January 2018. We went up there, and that is when we discovered it was flooded. The floors were all wavy and the toilet was like a rocking chair. We did stay there a week, and when we got home, we notified the insurance company [State Farm, who was awesome] and found out that it was probably covered, and also that, because of the way the floor is laid in campers, that it was probably totalled, and that if that was the case, that we might even get a small chunk of change back after State Farm payed BOA.
We got in touch with BOA. Told them what was going on. Had to wait for the adjuster to come out, months later. it was totalled. They said that they would pay BOA for the ammount still owed, and that there would still be 5 grand left for us [ so important to make those "just in case" phone calls] They said that we would get paid as soon as they removed the trailer from the site. We, and State Farm, were keeping BOA aware of everything. Then, it started to rain almost every day, and because of all of the mud, they could not remove the camper for several months. A couple of weeks after it was removed, we received a check [as did BOA]
So, I paid off all that I owed on the late bills, but discovered a mistake on the BOA loan. According to the information on Experians page [word?] I had not paid anything for 5 months, and then had paid the loan in full.
I should have left it like that. But instead, I called BOA, explained why I should not have all of those 30, 60, 120 marks. At first, they started trying to tell me that I still owed, but we finally got that cleared up. I was told to refute the report, and when the credit agencies notified them they woulld correct it. So, right after that, I went on Experians site. They had a place to refute. They had a long list of issues I could check off. My experience was not listed, so I hit "Other" which I filled in and explained as well as I could with the limited available allowable letters.
They immediately let me know that they were going to look into it.
A few weeks later, I received a few notices from them, ending with a "revised" report. At first I looked at it and thought that nothing had changed, which upset me some. Then I noticed how it had in fact been revised and I had a meltdown. They had changed some of the 120 lates to c/o. And, before,it had listed May 2018 as Paid, it was now also listed as c/o. So, i tried to refute THAT, and was told that I could not ask Experian to correct it because they had already done so [made false negative information even worse] but that I could insert a statement or something to that effect.
This was over a month ago, and I have wanted to post about it for advise, but I have been too upset. I was afraid I would get rambly [so sorry you guys!] but, anyway, if anyone has made it through this, I would really appreciate your help.
BTW, before all of this I had never had a late payment with BOA.
