Is it the status of the account (Derogatory and/or CO that affects your score or the lates---or both?
The reason I'm asking is back in Feb and then in June I wrote gw letters to JCP
(I know, I know...they aren't gw friendly).
Anyhow, the first time; never heard anything back and nothing changed. The second time, my letter was 'returned to sender'.
I got sw alert last week that said the account had been updated, and I looked and nothing seemed to have changed. Today I pull tc reports because I got an alert of an inquiry from JCP. The derogatory status remark and co status are both gone!
The account reads as closed by credit grantor on two reports and closed due to inactivity on the other!?!?
EQ 817, EX 815, TU 813 (Updated 1/5/18: TU 843
Found an old post that answered my question!
AmyBoo, Read the post on aging derogatories! 
TU gave me 14 points for this and EX gave me 4!
(EQ, of course---ZIP, Nadda, Nuttin'--per usual!)