Has Anyone Had Luck with a Goodwill Letter (TD Bank)

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by mbloom, Nov 29, 2011.

  1. mbloom

    mbloom New Member

    Newbie here.

    I am trying to refinance my home and have excellent credit that I accidentally trashed. I had set-up an automatic transfer from my checking to my home equity line. The problem is that when we drew more from the line, I neglected to increase the transfer amount. I stupidly never checked. The following month's payment would satisfy the previous month and I was coming in at 29 days...except in two months where there were 31 days. In the end I have two 30 day lates on the account. I pulled my credit reports and these are the only negatives. I have sent a Goodwill letter, but based on speaking with the customer service reps, it is not looking good. The lates are legitimate. Any advice?

    Thanks,
    Maury
     
  2. JoshuaHeckathorn

    JoshuaHeckathorn Administrator

    Welcome to Creditnet mbloom! Unfortunately, you're completely at the mercy of the bank here. I wouldn't give up after just one "no" though. If you reach the right person and are able to make a good case about how good of a customer you've been in the past except for this simple mixup, you might just get lucky. How long ago did you send your GW letter?
     
  3. mbloom

    mbloom New Member

    The Goodwill letter was only sent about a week ago. I probably should have waited until I collected all of my credit reports, which may have helped. I call
    everyday to see if there is an acknowledgment of receipt. Today's CSR said TD would not reverse it, but she was not the research department where I sent
    the letter. I'll wait for an answer and if no try again, this time with the credit reports.

    Thanks
     
  4. JoshuaHeckathorn

    JoshuaHeckathorn Administrator

    You'll definitely need to give them more time. Hopefully you sent your letter CMRRR so you can verify when it's actually received. Once it's received, give them 30 days to respond.
     
  5. mbloom

    mbloom New Member

    Nothing new to report...except that the more I looked into this, the more I came to realize that I was updating my scheduled auto transfer on the TD online banking site with the correct amount (more actually) and assuming it was changing the amount for all future payments. Stupidly, I assumed when the following month's payment was good, I was done and went back to my bad habit of not checking only to have the amount revert to the lower payment the next month. Even their online tech support didn't realize that was how the site was set-up. I am usingthat information and mailing a credit dispute along with a detailed letter of explaination -- I will be sending it CMRRR. The previous letter was faxed.
     
  6. jam237

    jam237 Well-Known Member

    Faxed is just as good as CMRRR if you have the transmittal receipt. :) (The best part, is that even though you have proof of receipt, they FORGET that part of the fax process, so they don't think that you do. Which turns out to actually be as good as or better than CMRRR. :))
     
  7. TPCredit

    TPCredit Member

    Sounds like you are doing all the right stuff. The unfortunate part about fixing your credit is it takes a small mistake to mess up then MONTHS AND MONTHS to FIX!!!!

    Keep up the good work buddy!
     
  8. mbloom

    mbloom New Member

    Positive Outcome!

    I received a letter from TD today indicating they have "sent an electronic request to the four major credit bureaus to remove the derogatory credit mark for
    November 2011". I was hoping they would have removed January, 2011 as well, but I was unsure of the incidents surrounding that late payment. November will
    work for me as I needed 12 months of no lates to qualify for a refi and I am now locked in to 3.875 on a 30 year for 60 days -- that will take me into February
    when the January late won't impact the refi.

    I have learned a valuable lesson from this -- check electronic payments and open the mail.

    It would never have occurred to me to write a goodwill letter had I not visited this site. It is unclear to me if the goodwill letter I faxed did the trick or if
    it was the second letter outlining my issue with the TD Bank web site in leading me to believe I was updating all transfers (that was mailed). I called TD to
    see which dates were associated with each annotation in the account record, but there was nothing indicating this had occurred. As I am unsure what
    systems get updated this doesn't concern me (I have the letter!)

    Below is the text of the letter that was faxed and below that is the letter I mailed (you will note some of the text was reused from others on this site). I got
    a signature confirmation on 12/24 and the TD letter is dated 12/27 -- given the holiday I am inclined to assume they responded to my first letter.


    Thanks for the help and support and I hope the below letters may help others in similar situations.

    ==========================================================================================
    FAXED

    Dear Banking Professional:

    I have been a TD Bank (Commerce) customer since moving to New Jersey over ten years ago. During that time, I have enjoyed my experience with TD
    greatly. I have two 30 day late payments on the below referenced account in the past 12 months. While there are a number of late payment charges -
    they are a result of underpayments, with the following month's payment satisfying the previous month. I am writing to see if you would be willing to make
    a "goodwill" adjustment to your reporting to the credit agencies. I fully recognize my responsibility with respect to payable accounts and have made the
    necessary adjustments online to avoid this in the future.

    I had an auto transfer set-up between my TD checking account and home equity line and neglected to increase the payment amount after using more of
    the line. I thought I corrected that, but apparently it did not take. Auto transfers were sent on the 7th of the month and payments were due on the 8th
    of the month. It appears that both months impacted had 31 days in them and pushed the payment to 30 days. This is the peril of paperless statements
    and automatic credit and debits. Both the amount of the monthly transfer and the date has been corrected online and I will be checking every month
    rather than relying solely on automation.

    My overall credit worthiness is excellent, save for these two payments and these will have a negative impact as we begin the process of refinancing our
    home. These late notations will likely preclude me from taking advantage of the low interest rates now available. Since those notations do not reflect my
    overall credit worthiness, I am requesting that you give me a second chance at a positive credit rating by revising those late notations. I sincerely hope
    that there is redemption at TD Bank and I beg you for such consideration.

    Please let me know if any additional documentation would assist you in reaching a positive outcome, and I thank you for the time you have spent reading
    this letter. I should add that I have previously requested a letter be faxed to the refinance company stating that I have not been 30 days late based on
    conversations with Customer Service at TD, however when I saw the report I requested, I was able to understand the reason for the 30 day lates. Again,
    it is my hope these can be removed.


    ==========================================================================================
    MAILED

    Dear Banking Professional:

    I have been a TD Bank (Commerce) customer since moving to New Jersey over ten years ago. During that time, I have enjoyed my experience with TD
    greatly. I currently have two 30 day late payments on the above referenced account in the past 12 months. While there are a number of late payment
    charges, they are a result of underpayments, with the following month’s payment satisfying the previous month. I had an auto transfer set-up between
    my TD checking account and Home Equity Line and thought I corrected the transfer amount, but apparently the web site did not function as expected.

    While I suspect both late payments are a result of the same underlying issue, I do not recall what occurred in January, 2011 and I am focusing on the
    October, 2011 late payment.

    In late July, 2011, I increased my recurring monthly transfer from $250 to $500 to avoid future underpayments. The August $500 payment transferred
    as expected and I assumed this was now corrected. When I looked in October, I was disappointed to again see late fees and that the September and
    October payments reverted to $250. I assumed I had done something wrong when originally updating the payment amount in July and I again increased
    the payment amount to $500 in November, 2011. The December, 2011 transfer was fine, but when I logged in on December 19, 2011, I noticed that the
    January payment again reverted to $250.

    I called the TD Loan Servicing department who connected me with online support. After some investigation, the support analyst concluded that when
    updating online transfers it did not update the payment series only the next payment. This was a surprise to her and a cause of concern to me. My
    assumption as the customer was that I was updating the recurring monthly transfer and not only the following month’s transfer. Both the amount of the
    monthly transfer and the date has been corrected online by deleting the original transfer and creating a new one. I will also be more diligent in validating
    transfers rather than relying solely on automation.

    Following is a screen print of the page used to edit a scheduled transfer. You can see how the words Recurring and Monthly could easily lead anyone to
    believe that they were updating all future transfers.

    [screen print of web site]

    While the both payments are technically late (both exactly 30 days), I feel strongly that the lack of clarity on the TD Bank website is partly to blame.
    Save for these two late payments, my overall credit history is excellent, and these will have a negative impact on that. Since these notations do not
    reflect my overall credit worthiness, I am requesting that you give me a second chance at a positive credit rating by revising the October, 2011 (and
    if possible the January, 2011) late notation and adjusting these with the Credit Reporting Agencies. I also suggest the web site be updated with either
    a warning or a clear option to change all future transfers.

    I have included copies of my credit reports from the three reporting agencies where you can see the only notation is for TD Bank (this was obtained prior
    to October, 2011 reporting). Please let me know if any additional documentation would assist you in reaching a positive outcome, and I thank you for the
    time you have spent reviewing this matter.

    ====================================================================================================
     
  9. JoshuaHeckathorn

    JoshuaHeckathorn Administrator

    Re: Positive Outcome!

    Nice work, and thanks so much for the update! We have so many people who never come back to let us know how things worked out, so it's always nice to hear a good success story. And thanks for posting the letters too...I'm sure they'll be quite helpful to someone in the future.

    Happy New Year!
     
  10. Sguyott

    Sguyott New Member

    Re: Positive Outcome!

    Hi, what was the address you sent the letter to? Is there a specific department I need reference on the envelope of the letter. Thanks.
     

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