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Impact of first late payment

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bruin23
New Visitor

Impact of first late payment

To start, some background: I'm 22, have a good job and a credit score of  717. I have 4 credit cards: American Express Blue Cash Preferred, Chase Freedom, Citi Forward and Macy's store card. No major debt, except for about $16,000 in student loans, which I have been paying off without a problem, on time each month. Credit cards are paid off in full each month and only the Amex and Chase carry any kind of balance. The Citi was my first credit card and I only charge a monthly Netflix fee to it so that I can keep it open and in use.

 

So I opened up a Macy's credit card a few months ago because I was making a large purchase and they were offering an additional 15% off with a new card. I figured, why not? Once I received my bill, I paid it off in full, like I do all my credit cards. A few weeks later, I decided to return one of the items that I'd purchased. Unbeknowngst to me, however, because that 15% off was taken off the full purchase and I returned one of the items, the pro-rated discount amount was added back to my credit card. As time went on, I'd receive emails from Macy's about my statements, but never bothered to look, figuring they were just automatic notifications since I knew I had a $0 balance because I hadn't made any purchases. Well lo and behold, about a month ago, I get a call from Macy's collections. Turns out, that incremental amount that was added back ($7....) was in collections. I got the problem resolved, they understood the error and waived all the late payment and interest fees. Furthermore, they said they hadn't alerted any credit agencies yet. Flash forward to last weekend, when I applied for another credit card and was surprisingly denied. I just received the rejection letter and the reason for the rejection was a late payment. I spoke with TransUnion, the reporting agency, and they confirmed it was from Macy's. Looks like they did report it after all.

 

I'm going to call Macy's credit department tomorrow morning and ask to have this taken off my record since the issue was very minor and was resolved without any hassle. But if they choose not to take it off, is there anything else I can do? I've read some things about goodwill letters - would that work? Would this one late payment have a really big impact on my credit score and history? It dropped my score about 15 points from what it used to be.

 

Thanks for all the help! And great forum, lots of very good information here.

Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
guiness56
Epic Contributor

Re: Impact of first late payment

The person you spoke with could very well have not annotated your records that the issue was resolved.  Did she/he tell you specifically it would not be reported?

 

I have found Macy's to be consumer friendly and helpful. 

 

The higher your scores the worst the impact of even one single 30 day late.

 

 

Message 2 of 4
bruin23
New Visitor

Re: Impact of first late payment

Yeah, I remember asking the CS person about credit agency impact and he specifically said that it had not gone outside of Macy's internal collections. I did file a dispute with TransUnion against Macy's because they said there was still a balance, even though it had been paid off a week before the reporting date. I'll see what Macy's says tomorrow.

 

And yeah I've heard the same about the impact. But in real-life sense, how much of an impact will that delinquency be? I realize that 717 is still a pretty high score so I'm not really worried about that.

Message 3 of 4
guiness56
Epic Contributor

Re: Impact of first late payment

Message 4 of 4
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