Interval Between Bank Reporting and Reflection on Your 3-Bureau Report?

[Anonymous]

Hi MyFico,

First time poster, long-time lurker. 

Here's the situation: Unbeknownst to me, my attempt to set up AutoPay on a Citi credit card was unsuccessful, and it turns out that I've missed a February 2nd and March 2nd payment of $37.00. 

I called Citi just now and they said to me "If you miss two payments, we report it." They couldn't confirm whether they'd actually reported the late payment, so they told me to pull my report.

I pulled my report and ... nothing on there! All my scores are as high as they should be for all 3 Bureaus (upper 700s / low 800s). That's good, right? 

However, I'm a bit paranoid. Today's April 9th. What if they did report the late payment and it somehow hasn't shown up on my report yet? 

So, my question to the all-knowing MyFICO forums: from the moment a bank decides to report a late payment to a credit bureau, to the moment that late payment shows up on a credit score, how much time passes? Is reporting instantaneous? Is it possible that, if I've missed two payments, the last of which was in March, and nothing's on my report, nothing will be on my report?

Thanks in advance, guys! Kinda freaking out here ... 

L

[Anonymous]

Reporting is not instantaneous.  It can take several (even many) days before it manifests on the actual report.

You refer to a Feb 2nd and a March 2nd payment.  When did this particular credit card print its last statement? 

You do not mention in your post whether you have attempted to address the problem (once discovered) by making any payments.  If you have not done that, I would do your best to pay that card down to $0 as soon as possible -- if paying to $0 is too much for your budget, then paying at least double the last minimum payment owed.

Given the conversation with the Citi rep as you described it, there may be no good solution but to have some anxiety, checking your reports weekly, until another 40 days has gone by.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, Dixie. 

To answer your questions:

As soon as I found out about this - even before my conversation with the Citi rep - I paid off the full amount, and the card balance is now at zero. The amount is missed was small, on a card I rarely use. 

The last statement for this particular card was April 6th (with the two previous ones being Feb 6 and March 6). 

[Anonymous]

On what date did you pay it off?

[Anonymous]

Today, April 9th. 

[Anonymous]

My guess is that you will almost assuredly see late payments reporting.  It sounded like there were payments due on Feb 2, March 2, and presumbly April 2, none of which were made... is that right?  (I understand how it happened, certainly not criticizing, just trying to be clear.)  On April 6 the statement printed and Citibank would have likely reported them (or possibly on April 7 or 8).

My guess is that you will see the lates materialize in the next 10 days, probably Wed-Fri of next week.

When they do, you may want to strategize with folks here about how to get them removed.  My guess is that you'll want to try to elicit sympathy from Citi by explaining that you were sure you had turned on Autopay.  They might have some kind of record of you attempting to do that.

Regardless Citi is not obligated to remove the lates, since they are a true description of what happened.  Still with persistence (research Goodwill Letters Saturation Technique) you may be able to get them off after a year.