Late payment on card I thought no longer is active

[Anonymous]

Hi all - I've consistently had FICO scores between 790 and 800 for the past year or so, and spend thousands every month on about 4 cards which I always pay on time. I used to have a Wells Fargo card which I no longer use. I recently checked my FICO after a few months of not looking and it is down to 650 - I was shocked and requested a detailed credit report, after which i realized there was somehow a charge on this old Wells Fargo card for about $50, which is now much higher due to late fees. The charge is 84 days late but I think wasn't reported until a bit over a month ago. They didnt even have relvant email address of way to contact me to tell me about the charge. 

I called Wells Fargo and immediately made the payment. They are going to evaluate internally whether to ask the credit bureau's / agencies to rescind the late report. In the meantime, what can I do and how long can I expect this to negatively affect my score? This is a bit of a nightmare. 


Thanks and best! 

[DIYcredit]

From the information you have provided you probably have a 30 day late and a 60 days late.If this charge is actually accurate.Then it will more than likely stay on your cr.The way it effects the Fico score is that the more recent it is,the more frequent you have lates,the more it will affect your score.If you have a 90 days late or worse then that considered a major derogatory.Regardless you will see  as it gets older you will start to see more Fico score improvement after two years.No matter what keep paying the cc's on time monthly and keep your cc balances way below 10%. GOOD LUCK

[Anonymous]

You'll need to track your reports over the next 45 days and look carefully at this account.  At least one late has been reported (probably a Day 30 late) and it is conceivable that a Day 60 late will materialize as well.

Let's suppose that Wells Fargo ultimately decides not to delate any of the lates.

A Day 30 only will hurt your score significantly for six months.  I have heard people get slammed (initially) going from totally clean to one Day 30 late.  But then eventually the harm starts easing up.  And after 25 months it begins to ease up a lot.

A Day 60 might be a different story.  That's much more significant since it involves (from FICO's perspective) an inability or refusal to pay for a very long time.

Your focus should be on gathering information (periodically pulling new reports and scrutinizing this account carefully) and on gently but persistemntly negotiating with Wells Fargo.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You'll need to track your reports over the next 45 days and look carefully at this account.  At least one late has been reported (probably a Day 30 late) and it is conceivable that a Day 60 late will materialize as well.

Let's suppose that Wells Fargo ultimately decides not to delate any of the lates.

A Day 30 only will hurt your score significantly for six months.  I have heard people get slammed (initially) going from totally clean to one Day 30 late.  But then eventually the harm starts easing up.  And after 25 months it begins to ease up a lot.

A Day 60 might be a different story.  That's much more significant since it involves (from FICO's perspective) an inability or refusal to pay for a very long time.

Your focus should be on gathering information (periodically pulling new reports and scrutinizing this account carefully) and on gently but persistemntly negotiating with Wells Fargo.

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I agree with @Anonymous but would add that you may need to send verification and/or dispute letters to credit bureaus if WF doesn't do the right thing and soon.

[Remedios]

What would OP dispute, tho?  

If the card is open and he was late, wouldn't GW delete be his only hope? 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Remedios wrote:

What would OP dispute, tho?  

If the card is open and he was late, wouldn't GW delete be his only hope? 

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There are 2 kinds of letters.

He could always send them a verification letter, just asking them to verify. If the verification from WF doesn't come back, it gets dropped. WF might not spend the energy to affirmatively go out and get this removed, but they might have the energy to do nothing when a verification request comes in.

He could, in my opinion, also send a dispute letter, just laying out what happened, how he never was made aware, the unfairness of it, etc etc etc And it might or might not work. Yeah I know WF undoubtedly has a defense, but are they going to really fight over this? Maybe and maybe not.

[Anonymous]

There is nothing in the rules about being fair (besides the name), just accurate. It’s a frivolous dispute because regardless of the circumstances, it happened. It is unfortunate and it may not be fair but those are the rules. Wells Fargo gets to choose if they will remove the late out of good will but there are no grounds for a dispute. 

[Remedios]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Remedios wrote:

What would OP dispute, tho?  

If the card is open and he was late, wouldn't GW delete be his only hope? 

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There are 2 kinds of letters.

He could always send them a verification letter, just asking them to verify. If the verification from WF doesn't come back, it gets dropped. WF might not spend the energy to affirmatively go out and get this removed, but they might have the energy to do nothing when a verification request comes in.

He could, in my opinion, also send a dispute letter, just laying out what happened, how he never was made aware, the unfairness of it, etc etc etc And it might or might not work. Yeah I know WF undoubtedly has a defense, but are they going to really fight over this? Maybe and maybe not.

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Thank you 

[RobertEG]

I would recommend looking at compliance with the requirements of the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA).

Unlike the FCRA, it has a strong dispute process that has both billing and verification provisions.

If you had a balance, they should have provided monthly billing statements.

If you dispute any billing related information, you can dispute within 60 days of the billing, invoking the strong provisions of the FCBA dispute process.