Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

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chocolate123
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Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by chocolate123 »

Hello All,

I have a very embarrassing question. I pay my credit card balance off each month and have never run a balance in the ten or so years that I have had a credit card.

This summer, I made a $70 payment with a credit card that I rarely use and don't have email reminders about. I did it late at night, and honestly forgot that I had done so for nearly three months (three payment cycles). I was out of the country at the time. Upon my return (and poring through all of the hard copy letters of various things that I had missed), I realized that this had caused
my card to go into default
my credit card company to cancel my "premium" card and downgrade me to a "standard" card
my credit score to fall by approximately 140 points (780 or 790 down to 640).


I immediately paid off the card at this point, but the damage was already done. Now I'm worried that it will take years to recover from such a silly mistake. :oops:

As someone with well over six figures a brokerage account (in addition to several thousand sitting in a checking account at the time of the above incident), this is extremely embarrassing. In other words, I had the money, and would have paid the card off no problem. I simply forgot. Now my credit score is in the dumps, but I don't feel like this reflects me as a borrower at all (and doesn't really say anything about me, as missing a $70 payment for three consecutive months is much different than missing a payment of $15,000 for three months).

Now my FICO report says:
Affected by the Key Factor(s) below:
1. Serious Delinquency
2. Time since Delinquency is too recent or unknown



Is there anything I can do?

Help!! :( :( :(
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mhc
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by mhc »

Did you try calling the credit card company?
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robertalpert
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by robertalpert »

Did you receive any form of monthly statements?

After your pmt clears the bank, call the credit card and ask to speak with their department that does the credit bureau reporting. If you never recvd any statements, the credit card might be willing to use that reason as a rationale to do a cbr corrective update. Or ask them for a courtesy correction to the cbr reporting.
DSInvestor
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by DSInvestor »

I'll let others address what to do with the credit rating.

I think you should look into using auto debit to pay your bills. I have credit cards with two companies and they both offer auto debit to pay in full every month. It is very useful for folks who travel extensively.

Also consider automatic payments for auto insurance, health insurance, umbrella insurance, rent or mortgage, condo dues, cell phone, cable. You don't want your insurance policies to lapse.
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Riceman
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by Riceman »

Have you considered turning on automatic payments with this (and all your cards) and linking to a central checking account? I know some have specific reasons not to do this, but it basically prevents this type of situation entirely. It's easy to track credit card balances and checking account balances with Mint, so I find it also saves mental energy.
The Wizard
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by The Wizard »

Three months is a long time to have missed a payment.
I don't think banks or other extenders of credit are immediately concerned with WHY a bill went untouched.
As others have said, you need to have systems in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening...
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dolphinsaremammals
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

I have reminders on my calendar once a month to "pay the following bills x, y, z."

As others have said, I'd phone the company to see if they will do anything, and then get rid of that unused card.

Am I correct in thinking a person can annotate a problem on their credit report with an explanation? I'd keep it to one sentence and mention the amount.

Unless you're planning on borrowing money or looking for a job, why care what your credit score is?
cherijoh
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by cherijoh »

dolphinsaremammals wrote: Am I correct in thinking a person can annotate a problem on their credit report with an explanation? I'd keep it to one sentence and mention the amount.
I'm pretty sure you can contest what is on your credit bureau report. Since OP mentioned it says "Serious Default", I think stating the amount would be a good idea. It would certainly help diffuse an issue with a potential employer who pulls your credit report.
AviN
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by AviN »

After you pay off the balance and your credit report gets updated to reflect that, it might not be so bad.

I was 30 days late on a credit card balance that I forgot about. I lost around 100 points. I sent a polite message to my bank apologizing and asking if they can remove it from my report. They declined to do that. But a few months later my credit scores were back to where it was previously anyway.

Your case might be worse since you were 3 months late rather than one though.

Of course, you should now setup e-mail and text reminders and automatic minimum payments on all your credit cards, including the ones you rarely use.

Avi
TIAX
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by TIAX »

One option may be to get your free annual credit reports and dispute any late charges/defaults and see if the credit cards respond.
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patriciamgr2
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by patriciamgr2 »

I respectfully disagree with the suggestion of closing this account. Because unused credit limit is an important part of scores, that might hurt your FICO score more.

I agree with other posters' suggestions that (1) you contact your credit card company (politely escalate to supervisor) to request that this be removed from your credit record; and (2) if that fails, write a 1-sentence explanation for inclusion on all three of your credit reports which emphasizes (a) small amount; (b) out-of-town on business; & (c) your inclusion, going forward, of this account in the normal auto-payment/reminder system you use to manage your primary credit cards, Last time I checked, you have the right to include an explanation.

Good Luck
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mmmodem
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by mmmodem »

I've had this happen to me once. I don't have a solution to you. I luckily caught it 3 days later and called the CSR to waive the late fee. It was a one time thing. I considered it a stupid tax and a wake up call. I immediately set up auto pay on all my account. I've never had issues with reversing charges with any credit card companies. I'd rather deal with them than collection agencies.
takeshi
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by takeshi »

Contact the creditor and see if they will do a goodwill removal of the derog on your reports.

Make sure you're monitoring all of your accounts (and much more often than once every 3 months) -- not just for this sort of thing but fraud as well. You have a limited window of time to address fraudulent transactions with your creditors. If you can't monitor accounts then consider closing them.

As stated above, consider setting up automatic payments to ensure that your accounts are kept current.
chocolate123 wrote:Now my credit score is in the dumps, but I don't feel like this reflects me as a borrower at all (and doesn't really say anything about me, as missing a $70 payment for three consecutive months is much different than missing a payment of $15,000 for three months).
Sure, there's a difference but you need to take whatever precautions you think are reasonable to avoid derogs on your reports for the reason you just experienced. Plenty have poor credit over sums far less than $15K. It's not just a matter of the amount.
mptfan
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by mptfan »

I don't think there is anything you can do about your credit report other than let time pass. With each passing month, the delinquency will count less and less against your score until eventually it will have very little impact, and eventually after seven years, it will disappear completely.

By the way, not to sound blunt, but no one cares how much money you had in your brokerage account while your bill went unpaid, or where you were when it went unpaid, or why you didn't pay the bill. Future creditors only care that it wasn't paid. Think of it logically as a potential future creditor yourself... would you care if someone wasn't paying you back as they promised because they were out of the country? Would it make you feel better knowing that they had lots of money in their brokerage account while they were not paying your bill? But rest assured that one mistake will not doom you forever.
WHL
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by WHL »

You messed up by paying the bill.

www.creditboards.com is the place to look for this information.
IPer
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by IPer »

It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
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The Wizard
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by The Wizard »

IPer wrote:It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
This does NOT sound to me anything like a well thought out strategy...
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mptfan
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by mptfan »

The Wizard wrote:
IPer wrote:It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
This does NOT sound to me anything like a well thought out strategy...
I agree. That strategy only works to some extent after the debt has been charged off, which happens after 180 days. And then it shows up as a collection on your credit report.
WHL
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by WHL »

The Wizard wrote:
IPer wrote:It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
This does NOT sound to me anything like a well thought out strategy...
Wrong.
WHL
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by WHL »

mptfan wrote:
The Wizard wrote:
IPer wrote:It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
This does NOT sound to me anything like a well thought out strategy...
I agree. That strategy only works to some extent after the debt has been charged off, which happens after 180 days. And then it shows up as a collection on your credit report.
And also wrong. As I said earlier, credit boards is the proper place for these questions.
IPer
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by IPer »

The Wizard wrote:
IPer wrote:It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
This does NOT sound to me anything like a well thought out strategy...
Well thought out would mean I paid the bill on time in the first place! I am only offering my personal experience
with dealing with credit card companies on this subject, which I am unfortunate to have had the experience. Now my credit
is very good and that is long in my past but the above reflects a real life situation (actually a few) that I had. Anyways flame me
if you want!
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MathWizard
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by MathWizard »

patriciamgr2 wrote:I respectfully disagree with the suggestion of closing this account. Because unused credit limit is an important part of scores, that might hurt your FICO score more.

I agree with other posters' suggestions that (1) you contact your credit card company (politely escalate to supervisor) to request that this be removed from your credit record; and (2) if that fails, write a 1-sentence explanation for inclusion on all three of your credit reports which emphasizes (a) small amount; (b) out-of-town on business; & (c) your inclusion, going forward, of this account in the normal auto-payment/reminder system you use to manage your primary credit cards, Last time I checked, you have the right to include an explanation.

Good Luck
This is by far the best advice.

I've had one go 3 months when I moved and the CC company updated my new address incorrectly.
I was busy and did not notice I was not getting statements.
I called them up and they credited my account for late fees and interest. Otherwise, I'd have paid the bill
and cancelled the card. Now this was their mistake not mine, but it is easier for a company to keep a customer
than get a new one. I also had them change my CC number since 3 statements had gone to someone I did not know.
The Wizard
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by The Wizard »

WHL wrote:
The Wizard wrote:
IPer wrote:It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
This does NOT sound to me anything like a well thought out strategy...
Wrong.
Not wrong.
We're talking $70 total here.
If the debt was $7000, it would be a different story...
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Ted Valentine
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by Ted Valentine »

I missed a payment before and immediately paid it off. I called the number on the back of the card and they reversed all fees and interest as a courtesy. I had years of history always paying it off to back it up. They may not do that for 3 months, however.

Another funny thing that happened recently is I mistakenly adjusted the payment on my car on my billpay site to below the required monthly amount by about $30. This went on for 6 months. I contacted them to enquire about the balance and discovered my mistake. The finance company did nothing about it and said it was ok. I apologized and paid the back balance immediately.

I agree with the first response, call them. Ask them. Apologize. Worst they can say is no.
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mhalley
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by mhalley »

3 months late is pretty damaging to your fico score. I agree that calling the cc company is the best bet, followed up with a letter. Here is some examples of a goodwill letter:
http://credit.about.com/od/creditrepair ... mation.htm
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General ... /td-p/4521

I liked these comments about the goodwill letters:
Use imagination and creativity. Speak from the heart. Try to be honest, or at least use a plausible explanation. Put it in your own words. Don't copy GW letters word for word. The teacher might detect plagiarism and mark you paper down. But do read GW letter samples for ideas.
GW is akin to panhandling for a better FICO score. But take a shower, wear clean clothes, and make a good presentation. Think job interviewee and not homeless guy with tin cup.

I read online that posting an excuse (My dog ate my homework!) isn't helpful, so you might want to look into that more before you decide to post a comment on your credit report. If it was a dispute, then that would be a different matter. Here is an exerpt:
From the equifax blog:
2. Don’t make excuses.

A personal statement doesn’t carry enough weight to counter a lengthy series of credit problems. When written as an excuse (“I forgot to mail a check,” for example), a personal statement can be interpreted as an admission of having poor money management skills rather than as an explanation of a one-time event.
Mike
WHL
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by WHL »

The Wizard wrote:
WHL wrote:
The Wizard wrote:
IPer wrote:It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
This does NOT sound to me anything like a well thought out strategy...
Wrong.
Not wrong.
We're talking $70 total here.
If the debt was $7000, it would be a different story...
Yeah, you're still wrong. A delinquency is still a delinquency, regardless of the dollar amount. Once the bill is reported as being delinquent, the damage is done. Paying the bill, and ESPECIALLY paying a debt collection agency, does nothing to improve the credit score.

The only real option is BEFORE the bill is paid - otherwise, what leverage does the delinquent have?

Third time and final time - www.creditboards.com
The Wizard
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by The Wizard »

WHL wrote:
The Wizard wrote:
WHL wrote:
The Wizard wrote:
IPer wrote:It might have been easier if you had NOT paid your bill off right a way. You could call the
credit card company and negotiate a payoff and a deletion of the derogatory mark. They might
not do it if it is paid off already. You might get lucky by speaking to an upper manager there.
This does NOT sound to me anything like a well thought out strategy...
Wrong.
Not wrong.
We're talking $70 total here.
If the debt was $7000, it would be a different story...
Yeah, you're still wrong. A delinquency is still a delinquency, regardless of the dollar amount. Once the bill is reported as being delinquent, the damage is done. Paying the bill, and ESPECIALLY paying a debt collection agency, does nothing to improve the credit score.

The only real option is BEFORE the bill is paid - otherwise, what leverage does the delinquent have?

Third time and final time - http://www.creditboards.com
We don't care about creditboards.com here.
As I said already, a $70 non payment isn't big enough to motivate any sort of negotiated settlement.
I'll agree to pay just $50, but only if you restore my credit score, really?
Nonetheless, I'm glad this is the final time...
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dolphinsaremammals
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

The Wizard wrote: We don't care about creditboards.com here.
As I said already, a $70 non payment isn't big enough to motivate any sort of negotiated settlement.
I'll agree to pay just $50, but only if you restore my credit score, really?
Nonetheless, I'm glad this is the final time...
+1

The OP owes the money and should pay the bill immediately. That's obvious.

No one at the company is going to be motivated to compromise by a $70 payment.

I have no idea what creditboards.com is and I don't care what their advice is.
mars
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by mars »

Respectfully, the folks advising to pay the balance immediately in this situation seem to be making such a recommendation based on their sense of right and wrong, not based on real world experience or an effort to fix the credit reporting problem. (I understand in this case its a moot question because the OP paid the bill.)

The correct way to handle is to call the credit card company, explaining why the derogatory report on the credit report is an error, and having it removed.

A very similar situation happened to me. A charge got on a card I rarely use and I did not receive notice that I had a balance (just the same monthly email advising that a statement was available -- which I never checked because I never used the card).

After I discovered the error 3 months later, called the company, politely but firmly explained the derogatory report to the credit bureau was in error because I had no notice of the charge. It was cleared up immediately and my credit score was restored. I have no doubt that this was the proper way to handle the situation. Paying the bill or paying a collection agent removes your available leverage and does nothing to improve the hit to the credit score.
mptfan
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by mptfan »

mars wrote: The correct way to handle is to call the credit card company, explaining why the derogatory report on the credit report is an error, and having it removed.
There was no error, the credit card company accurately reported that the bill was delinquent after sending the bill, presumably a number of times, but the OP did not see the bills because he or she was out of the country. This is not the credit card companies fault. The credit card company correctly reported that the payment was late. Since there was no error, the OP would be asking the credit card company to remove the derogatory report, but they would be under no obligation to do so.
mars
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by mars »

mptfan wrote:
mars wrote: The correct way to handle is to call the credit card company, explaining why the derogatory report on the credit report is an error, and having it removed.
There was no error, the credit card company accurately reported that the bill was delinquent after sending the bill, presumably a number of times, but the OP did not see the bills because he or she was out of the country. This is not the credit card companies fault. The credit card company correctly reported that the payment was late. Since there was no error, the OP would be asking the credit card company to remove the derogatory report, but they would be under no obligation to do so.
It wasn't technically an error in my case either but you've got to make the case that it is to have them remove the derogatory remark. Not arguing with you about the merits, my point is that there is a way to restore the credit score in these situations and paying the bill, in my understanding, isn't the best approach.
Easy Rhino
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by Easy Rhino »

something similar happened to me about 9 years ago. I had a card with like a $12 balance on it, and forgot I had the balance. I missed statements for a good 5 months, the account went very delinquent and was then charged off! My my credit score was hurt a lot by it.

When I finally realized this (I was denied when I applied for credit elsewhere and checked my credit report), I called the bank (it was MBNA, now owned by BofA). as soon as I put in my account number I was immediately transferred to collections. I sheepishly explained that I had just missed out that I even had the card, let alone a balance on it.

while verifying my info, the collections rep realized that my address was missing one digit on my apartment number. While I had probably recieved at least one credit card bill during that time (and discarded it thinking it was junk mail), I immediately said 'well golly I don' tknow where my statements would have gone then".

The CSR went to typing for a long long time. Eventually he refunded the accrued late charges (which were a lot), and repaired the credit reporting (the negative payment history on the card was replaced with blanks).
dgdevil
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by dgdevil »

Buy tons of stuff on this rarely used credit card, pay it all off immediately to show them what a great person you are. After a few months of this, call them to remind them what a great person you are - and, btw, could they please fix your credit report.
dolphinsaremammals
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

dgdevil wrote:Buy tons of stuff on this rarely used credit card, pay it all off immediately to show them what a great person you are. After a few months of this, call them to remind them what a great person you are - and, btw, could they please fix your credit report.
No.
jumppilot
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by jumppilot »

The Wizard wrote: We don't care about creditboards.com here.
As I said already, a $70 non payment isn't big enough to motivate any sort of negotiated settlement.
I'll agree to pay just $50, but only if you restore my credit score, really?
Nonetheless, I'm glad this is the final time...

Those aren't realistic statement.

1) I'd go to creditboards.com if I had a credit issue. I wouldn't trust many on this site for car advice, vacation advice etc. Credit is no exception.

2) $70 multiplied by a typical card issuer's client base is a huge amount of money. I'm sure their daily call center meetings don't start with "$70 isn't a lot of money. Don't even bother with those."
tbradnc
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by tbradnc »

I did exactly the same thing - missed 3 months on a $148 charge I made on a Chase card thinking I had already set it up for autopay when I received the card - but I didn't.

My FICO score dropped like a rock - I paid the card off in full, didn't contest the late fee, and dealt with the long climb back up the FICO ladder.

I just chalked it up as something I did to myself - but I've never done it again!
Quickfoot
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by Quickfoot »

They wont remove the damage from your credit, good news is as long as you don't make any more mistakes you should recover at least half the drop in 6 months to a year. Don't stop using credit because then you aren't building positive history, just make sure you pay all your bills on time.

It will be on your years but the weight decreases as time goes on. After a year to two years most credit issuers wont give it much weight. Credit scores take into account (a.) what happened, (b.) how recently it happened and (c.) what has happened since then.
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White Coat Investor
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by White Coat Investor »

Does your credit rating matter to you for some reason? I could care less if my score dropped 140 points as I don't have any plans to borrow money. Probably ever again, but definitely not in the near future. Besides if your score was 800 or so, you don't need it to get back to that in order to have good enough credit. It only needs to come up to 740 or so.
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Quickfoot
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by Quickfoot »

Does your credit rating matter to you for some reason? I could care less if my score dropped 140 points as I don't have any plans to borrow money
Maintaining good credit is important whether or not you intend to borrow money. Credit scores are used for a lot more than borrowing money. They are often used by employers to evaluate character and decision making and are used when renting a property as well. Poor credit scores indicate poor decision making and higher risk of theft and that results in people not getting jobs.

From a medical perspective why would anyone trust someone with their life if that person doesn't even pay their bills on time? That person is not showing good decision making skills and we know decision making skills are not limited to one area, one could reasonably expect that person not to make good decisions professionally either.
Last edited by Quickfoot on Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
JohnFiscal
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Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by JohnFiscal »

DSInvestor wrote:I'll let others address what to do with the credit rating.

I think you should look into using auto debit to pay your bills. I have credit cards with two companies and they both offer auto debit to pay in full every month. It is very useful for folks who travel extensively.

Also consider automatic payments for auto insurance, health insurance, umbrella insurance, rent or mortgage, condo dues, cell phone, cable. You don't want your insurance policies to lapse.
Yep. I have been doing this since the early 1990's and I have never ever had a problem with incorrect amount, etc.
dgdevil
Posts: 938
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:42 pm

Re: Accidentally forgot a credit card for three months HELP!

Post by dgdevil »

Quickfoot wrote:From a medical perspective why would anyone trust someone with their life if that person doesn't even pay their bills on time? That person is not showing good decision making skills and we know decision making skills are not limited to one area, one could reasonably expect that person not to make good decisions professionally either.
This is the silliest thing I have read in BH. I can just see you coming into the emergency room, in great pain, but refusing to be treated until you can verify that that the staff pay their personal bills on time.
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