Missed 2 months of credit card payments due to my own dumb error. What can I do?

Submitted by Left_Kaleidoscope_38 t3_1258zgj in personalfinance

I changed banks recently and moved over all of my automated payments to the new bank account, or so I thought. I forgot to move over my CapitalOne autopay info, and now, 2 months later, I finally noticed.

My credit score dropped by like...200 points-ish because of my stupid mistake. I paid it off today, and changed the autopay info, but the damage is done. What's the best course of action for me to hopefully rectify this, if anything?

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InteriorAttack t1_je33vak wrote

You can ask them nicely but they probably aren't going to remove 2 missed payments. That's a pretty big oversight

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44Nj t1_je3fwvi wrote

You should def start with calling your card. My long past experience of missing many payments on lots of different cc is that they all have some forgiveness policy that may help.

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Oyster_Jelly t1_je3gabh wrote

Yep if you're sincere and have good history they'll definitely reverse at least 1

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gearboxlabs t1_je3y2xn wrote

Tell them you had Covid.

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gearboxlabs t1_je6r62w wrote

Always nice to see downvotes instead of discussion. It's not the disagree button, y'all.

The *reality* is that Covid /is/ a reason that banks /do/ forgive lateness. I know personally that this is true.

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EclecticPhotos t1_je7yna8 wrote

This would be forgiveness of a late payment perhaps, but not usually to the credit bureaus, at least not any FI's I know of.

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BigMu1952 t1_je4itd2 wrote

I have worked at two credit unions, and while we try to help folks as much as possible, we will not change accurate credit reporting. Ever.

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grahamsz t1_je4qk6o wrote

They might. I screwed up all 4 of my cards because of something going on the caused me to miss my usual payment date and mentally I just spaced paying all my bills.

They didn't even make a pretense of it being a problem and reversed all the penalties and interest. Discover even apologized to me for the inconvenience.

If you are a good customer then they'll likely bend over backwards, and you can threaten to close the card and talk to retentions (though if it's your oldest card then you won't want to actually do that)

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Rave-Unicorn-Votive t1_je33vjb wrote

>What's the best course of action for me to hopefully rectify this, if anything?

Wait patiently for the impact to slowly diminish over time and put measures in place to avoid this happening again. (Don't rely solely on autopay, you should be reconciling your account monthly.)

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navy_dubber t1_je3usuq wrote

yea it’s pretty insane to check on your accounts so little that you didn’t notice your credit card went unpaid for 2 months. if you got fraudulent charges unless they were for a huge amount you’d probably never notice.

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EclecticPhotos t1_je7yh6q wrote

This and keep a calendar with all your bill due dates on it and cross off each as you pay it. Easy to tell at glance which ones are not paid.

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Cool_Coyote_- t1_je3rvo7 wrote

My bank contacts me like 15 different ways how the F. do you miss something like that? Are people just not opting in to notifications because "ugh, they are so annoyingh!" these days???

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Whos_HUNKYDORY t1_je42v59 wrote

Right most banks do... infact most my cards or loans send a reminder that the payment is coming out before the due date and after its gone through. I also have a seperate email account thats strictly for bills so i don't even have to sort through them in my primary email.

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lenbeen t1_je4q3xm wrote

>due to my own dumb error.

proof is in the pudding i guess

i know i've had my fair share of "oh shit, that was due last week..."

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danno625 t1_je39g6o wrote

As others have said, probably gonna have to wait it out. I was 30-days late on a credit card payment 7 years ago, all my cards are on autopay for the minimum just in case i forget. I opened a new card and forgot to set it up, was with capital one. they would not remove it and i just had to deal with it.

after awhile the effect began to diminish, then it fell off.

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nkyguy1988 t1_je33sj7 wrote

Don't miss any more payments, take your medicine, and wait.

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pengy99 t1_je3moc9 wrote

As mentioned, most CCs have some forgiveness policy assuming you have a history of on time payments. I have missed a couple over the years, usually for auto pay reasons, and didn't even pay a late fee after making a phone call to explain.

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Live_Background_6239 t1_je3lvd5 wrote

Next time call them up and ask them to waive the last one and you’ll pay the two missed payments (and one late fee) and the current payment due. That’s pretty standard and they’ll do that like once a year. A 200pt drop seems extreme. I’d do some careful looking and make sure that was the event that caused the drop.

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ShadowChief3 t1_je3putl wrote

Okay. This happened to me (sort of) in the fall. It’s not exactly the same situation but I highly suggest you try what I did to correct.

Backstory I dropped the caliber of CC as I wasn’t using it anymore. When I did, the card # remained the same. I was also told everything would remain the same (IE auto pay). I stopped using the card but a singular 4$ ish charge remained after the swap. Unfortunately the auto pay turned off. I didn’t know. That was septemberish. November I get a credit alert and discover it.

Calling them didn’t help as they must tell you they can’t adjust accurate credit score stuff. I wrote a letter to all the high level emails I could find on their home page (this was chase I believe). There is a letter format and you plug in your details/story. I was lucky and received a response within a week that they understand what happened better (they may have called me back actually) and they would fix it. 1 month later and my 140ish points returned.

My situation involved a bit of an error on their part, but def an error on my part. I wish you luck!

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nichogenius t1_je3q52y wrote

Never hurts to call them and ask nice

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swissmtndog398 t1_je59ju4 wrote

Write them a goodwill letter (examples online) asking to remove the late reports from your credit. Cite whatever reasons you need, but the more sympathetic you are the better. As long as you have a previous good payment record, they should help.

Just as a heads up. This worked once and it was worth capital one. When she missed subsequent payments later, they refused.

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Fancy-Fish-3050 t1_je3t5s7 wrote

I use the autopay from each credit card website to have them get the full payment from my bank. I feel like they would hound me if there was an issue getting their payment from the bank. When I hear of people setting up payments from their bank it always struck me as more worrisome. I don't truly know if it is and would be curious if anyone knows the actual answer.

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BlakeWrecks t1_je4bpjj wrote

200 point drop from 2 late payments?

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BillZZ7777 t1_je4etfw wrote

In the hectic times after my divorce and relocating, new bank accounts, I missed payments for the first time in my life. I was more concerned with with the penalties for not paying anything. I called up and they refunded most of my penalties. Not sure what it did to my credit score.

Usually when I switch bank accounts, I leave the old one open with some money in it for a while so I can make sure I got everything. I also maintain a document with all my bills and account numbers and how/when they are paid.

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yayaja67 t1_je4v3vd wrote

Call them, explain what happened, cite your otherwise flawless payment history, and ask them nicely to refund the Fees/interest and remove the credit marks.

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Jennyanydots99 t1_je7cldt wrote

I accidentally missed 1 payment 30 days late. Took 7 years to drop from credit report.

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Jennyanydots99 t1_je7ctdu wrote

I also called Chase, and they wouldn't do anything about it. I missed the payment because I was in the hospital too.

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HenryMortgage t1_je82pdb wrote

There's not much you can do to fix the mistake, but you can manage your credit in a way that the algorithms will give you extra credit to get your scores back up. The no brainer part is to keep making all of your payments on time. My second suggestion is to avoid anyone pulling your credit report. The algorithm is (incorrectly) afraid you are losing your ability to pay back your debts, so if you apply for more credit, that will further that concern. The last suggestion is to keep your balances on all revolving credit cards less than 20% of the credit limit. Its important to use them, so don't leave the balance at $0, but keeping it under 20% (or as low as possible) gives you the best chance to improve your scores. My suggestion to my clients is to put a tank of gas in your car using your credit card and then pay the balance every month when you get the statement. By consistently doing this, you will get your scores back up pretty quickly. Good luck!

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Terbatron t1_je39hxo wrote

Life lesson to pay attention to your finances.

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moodring88 t1_je3fkmw wrote

paid it off? like the whole loan? if so, nothing.

If you just paid the two months you missed, I'd make a bigger payment next month to bring your score up or pay early.

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innkeeper_77 t1_je3g8yl wrote

It’s a credit card… the problem is the missed payments.

Not much to be done except explain to capital one that they messed up but it was an autopsy issue, not a credit worthiness one, and MAYBE they would take pity and make adjustments to their reported missed payments.

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