BOA reported a 30 late fee, now my fico dropped 100!

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone..

I am in a bit of trouble and thought I would seek some advice here. I have a credit card from BOA, that I never use. This year they added a 30 dollar yearly fee on it, and I noticed it only in April. It was too late, and they reported it to the credit beaurau and dropped my FICO from 815+ to 740. 

I am trying to refinance my home, but due to this, i will end up paying a lot more. 

Can anyone suggest some options to get this rectified? I have never ever been late on an payment, and this was a total miss on my part.

Thank you in advance..

[Anonymous]

You can try calling them and explaining what happened. I've never had to do this so hopefully someone with knowledge will help out. I would assume there is a department that handles the reporting of info to the credit bureaus, so perhaps you can try to contact that dept. (if there is one). I'm sure the front line CSR probably won't be able to help, other than to remove the late fee.

[ojefferyo]

I would give them a call and see if they would be willing to help you out on this. Normally when they change anything on your credit card they always send you something in the mail. This was always the case for me anyways. I saw a member on here that somehow they missed a payment or something on their BofA card and when they call CSR they reversed the late fee but howevr refused to remove the late on the CR.

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You can try calling them and explaining what happened. I've never had to do this so hopefully someone with knowledge will help out. I would assume there is a department that handles the reporting of info to the credit bureaus, so perhaps you can try to contact that dept. (if there is one). I'm sure the front line CSR probably won't be able to help, other than to remove the late fee.

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You probably will need to contact the Executive Office (or whatever BoA calls it).   Do you have other BoA cards that you do use (or any sort of relationship).  Otherwise, unfortunately, they don't have a whole lot of incentive to help  ("You owed us $30.  Did you pay it on time?  No, so it's late and that's what we reported.")    although they might be nice anyway.

BTW, this is one of the reasons I am in the "closed unused cards" camp.   Apart from unauthotized charges, an issuer can always start imposing on AF, and even if they give proper notice, it can be easy to miss.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your responses.

I will request for a goodwill waiver, I am not sure if it will work.

It is my mistake. I often travel for work, and was gone for 6+ weeks during which the notice of annual fee came in. I somehow missed it when I was going through my mail (must have shredded it).

I sure hope BOA considers my request.

[ojefferyo]

I always make it a habit to check my accounts online whether from a computer or from my phone no matter where I'm at.

[Anonymous]

Call them and ask them to waive the $30 fee which you believe you weren't properly notified of, and in the course of removing it, they should remove the claim that you were late paying a fee you shouldn't have owed. You might get somewhere with this. You might not.

If you get nowhere, close your account with them. I would not do business with a company that sneaks in fees and then files late payments.

I really would rather close an account than deal with a company like that. Hopefully BoA has enough customer service sense to realize it too, and they help you out. Otherwise, end your relationship with BoA.

[ojefferyo]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Call them and ask them to waive the $30 fee which you believe you weren't properly notified of, and in the course of removing it, they should remove the claim that you were late paying a fee you shouldn't have owed. You might get somewhere with this. You might not.

If you get nowhere, close your account with them. I would not do business with a company that sneaks in fees and then files late payments.

I really would rather close an account than deal with a company like that. Hopefully BoA has enough customer service sense to realize it too, and they help you out. Otherwise, end your relationship with BoA.

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OP did say that he was gone for a few weeks and must have missed the paperwork. I highly doubt BofA was trying to sneak in any fees. 

[Anonymous]

I did go to the local branch, called 1-800 number and emailed them. So far i have not received a positive reply. This may be a very costly mistake.

I somehow feel that the system is not fair in this regard. There was no intent of avoiding the fee, nor was an irresponsible use of credit. I did miss the fee deadline, as this card has not been used in the last 10 years.  All the promotinal mail I get, I must have shredded a genunine notice.

I will update if I hear something positive.

[yfan]

Curious. Which BofA card is it?