[resolved] CRISIS with CapOne past due account, Please Help!

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I've got a major crisis on my hands here and would very much appreciate any advice on how to proceed with the following issue.

STORY: so I’ve been trying to get my credit score as high as I can because I am planning on buying a house in the near future. I got my real FICO score up to 748 by last April so I’m thinking everything is going great. I had a CapitalOne CC that I paid off completely last year and just had a 0$ balance for a few months, so I was thinking that was all squared away and wasn’t paying much attention to it (I know, big mistake). So yesterday I log into my CapOne account and to my horror discover that a automated charge from eBay went through for $2.36 back in June. I wasn’t aware of it and the fees and such added up to about $42 when i saw it yesterday and I of course immediately paid off. However this resulted in a 90+ day past due status from the last three months!

I just checked my credit score and its dropped to 614! I am completely distraught and have no idea what to do at this point.

I have already written a GOODWILL letter that I plan to send out to practically any relevant CapOne address/email/fax I could find. Do I have any other options? If anyone has any other advice or know of any other resources I could turn to for help I would be forever grateful.

I fully realize that this is really all my foul for not checking in on the account but there must be someway to fix this huge problem stemming form a $2 charge.

Relevant Credit Info:

1X CapOne CC (3k Lim): Age 7 years ($0 balance, above mentioned problem)

1X VACU CC (5k lim): Age 1 year (perfect hist, $400 balance)

1X VACU Personal Loan (1K lim): Age 1 Year (perfect)

1X VACU Car Loan: 60 months ($7.2k/$14.5k)

[Anonymous]

Did you call Capital One yet? Start there! They can see that you had a zero balance and what happened. Apologize all over yourself, be super nice, tell them about your credit score and mortgage plans, and beg them to help you. Since you've been with them so long, and haven't had any other credit problems, hopefully they'll get rid of the late payments. If that doesn't work, call a different number. Call the executive office, e-mail, contact anyone and everyone you can until someone helps. Good luck!

[GregB]

With hindsight it is probably obvious that it is always best to check every account once a month. I hope you can get somewhere with CapOne but thought I might mention something else.

IF the charge from eBay was an error or should have been paid in another way, you can dispute the charge and all the subsequent problems with the account should go away.

[Anonymous]

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@GregB wrote:

With hindsight it is probably obvious that it is always best to check every account once a month. I hope you can get somewhere with CapOne but thought I might mention something else.

IF the charge from eBay was an error or should have been paid in another way, you can dispute the charge and all the subsequent problems with the account should go away.

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Though wonderful info, in this case for OP its too late, he already paid the bill in full. I believe C1 requires you to not have paid the bill when you dispute a charge. Once you pay it, its deemed you agreed to charging it.

[Anonymous]

Autumnslight: Thanks for your advice. I just called an account specialist at CapitalOne and explained the situation. He gave me a long story about how it would be illegal for him to amend the reporting history but offered to waive the late fees (which I of course could care less about). I will continue calling all other numbers I can find. If anyone else has any advice or numbers/contact info with Cap1 pleas elet me knwo or PM me. Many thanks all! 

[Anonymous]

I hate when they pull that. Yes, legally they are required to report "accurate" information. However, they have a lot of leeway in there. They can't say you were late if you weren't, but they don't have to say that you were late at all. They can simply delete that month's payment history. Or, in this case, since it was just an error/misunderstanding, they could decide that you weren't REALLY late due to the circumstances, and change it. If they were going to waive the late fees (which costs them money), then they really should be willing to not report it as late too (which doesn't cost them anything).

I don't have any contact info for them, but check the sticky thread in the Credit Card forum for Backdoor Numbers. Try the executive office maybe. Otherwise, start by sending letter. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to provide an update: Success! Got cap1 to remove three months ofleast due reporting. I ended up sending out a few emails and some letters requesting goodwill. In the end the one that worked was an email I sent to the CEO, Richard Fairbanks. Of course he didn't respond, but I got a call back from a really nice guy at he executive office. He seemed to genuinly feel for me and said he would contact a few other departments to see what could be done. Today he calls me back to inform me that the revision to my credit reporting has been made and that he sent out a letter to me stating that fact. 

It turns out that cap one has some sort of policy that if your account becomes 180 days past due, goes to collections, AND the original charge that caused it was less then the resulting fees (<$40ish he told me) they would remove the reporting. Dont quote me on all this but thats basicaly what he told me. Anyway mine wasn't that late be he was able to make the adjustment under the same policy.

Anyway thanks again all! My advice to anyone looking for an adjustment is to talk directly with the executive office. The 3 or so regular account executives all told me that absolutely nothing could be done :/