I was late Oct. 02, Nov. 02, Dec. 02, Jan. 03 before I scrapped up enough to pay them the past due amount and avoid a charge off. I now have about $400 balance left on the open card. My finanical situation has gotten better and I can pay the balance in full, but those recent lates are KILLING me. Would Cap 1 be responsive if I offered them the payment in full in exchange for REMOVAL of the late pays? I tend to think that they won't go for it since they would rather me carry a balance, be late, etc. so they can continue to assess fees. Any thoughts on these RECENT LATES on an OPEN CARD? peace, delilah
I don't know about Cap1, but I had recent lates on a Discover and a CitiBank card. I paid and closed both accounts and then disputed them as never late. The accounts still appear on my credit report as paid/closed but all of the lates have been disputed and removed except for Discover on EQ (which I'm still working on). Try to negotiate, but if it fails and you don't need the card, pay and close it. You may also want to try using a "Restrictive Endorsement" and then sue them if they fail to delete the lates. There is a very good chance that their payment processing center will accept a crrr letter and cash a restricted check. Then its just a matter of taking them to small claims court. See the following link: http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42936&highlight=ryder Good Luck!
Hi there. To answer your question, yes I think so. You may not even have to dangle a check, just try goodwill. I had a similar situation with Cap 1. I was very late for at least three months starting 9/01, and racked up quite a bit of late fees, etc. (My CL was $500, but I owed $791!) Unfortunately I just wanted it gone, so paid it all and didn't try to negotiate for less, but that's another story. Fast forward to 9/02: I started frequenting this board, and focusing on cleaning up my credit. This included the multiple late notations from Cap 1. First I tried disputing it w/all three CRAs, but it always came back verified. Then I tried a goodwill letter based on a template I found here on CNET, although I wasn't very optimistic about getting results. In my letter, I included a dramatic recap of life events which precluded me from paying my bills on time back then (all true, btw) and said that I was trying to buy a house for my family (not exactly true, but they don't know that), and that the late payments were hindering my ability to get reasonable financing. I emphasized that I wanted to continue being a loyal Cap 1 customer, and get back into their good greaces, etc. etc. To my surprise, I received a letter from Cap 1 about two weeks later--apologizing and stating that they would remove the late notations! I checked my CRs that day, and my account was in fact changed to a positive status on all three. I was thrilled, and even wrote the guy a thank you note. (His name was J. Thompson). I don't know if this helped, but when I wrote the original letter, I addressed it to "customer service manager". I always try to avoid the rabble of mindless and incompetent CSRs, if at all possible and go right to a supervisor. Anyway, I hope this helps. Good luck!
Thanks for the advice. I wanted to keep it open for the "mix" on my report (those analyzers say the amount of credit cards I have open -- 2 -- is helping my score). I think I'll try to first negotiate by asking for a pay for deletion agreement in writing. If that's no good, I think I'll try the restrictive endorsement since those are enforceable here in Texas. Closing will be a last resort, and I guess I could try to hold that over them, so to speak (although they could probably care less). oh, and thanks for the tip about dealing with a manager, rather than a rep! peace, delilah
