Hi All, First time to forum for me, in midst of a panic. Would deeply, deeply appreciate advice. The situation is as follows: My friend and I lived together for about a year in NY. He had a telephone/internet account (Frontier) for 4 years until this Fall, when he moved out of the apartment; I was supposed to take over the account in October. We were in the process of getting my name on the account and his off it, but ran into a few snags. Long and short of it is, he thought I had gotten my name on it in September but I hadn't; I was overwhelmed with a chronic health condition which has sent me to 7 doctors in the past 4 months looking for answers. (I say that not as an excuse, but rather thinking it might be useful in a goodwill adjustment approach or something). So I finally got my name on it in late November, but the balance had grown by then, since no bills had been paid (my fault). So now I finally rectify the balance, and since I hadn't assumed the account yet, the charges were on him - but the bills were being sent to my address (no longer his), and I was so bloody out of it with my own problems that I didn't manage to set things straight. So I paid off the balance tonight, and Frontier (phone company) is telling me that before I paid off the balance, the account (still under my friend's name) had no payments for three months - or, as they said, one in the 32-62 day category, one in the 63-92, and one in the over 93 day category, all about 60 dollars (though I know the amount isn't the problem). So in other words, his credit score is going to tank because of my negligence. I am absolutely destroyed with guilt over potentially wrecking my friend's credit score because I was so lost in treating this chronic illness with too much pride to admit I couldnt' handle any other responsibility at the time. Given that my friend is not really to blame here (it was implicit that I assumed the account even though I never formally said I had), and the 4 previous years of his payments were all on time, is there any chance I could convince Frontier to delete these 3 late payment problems? Would going the GW adjustment letter or "nutcase" letter be better? What would be my best course of action? I will try anything, for as long as it takes - letters weekly for a year, etc, whatever it takes. Please, please offer your advice, I am in really rough shape...
Hmmm...tough situation. I understand you feel really bad about this, but the fact is your friend remained responsible for that bill until his name was officially off of it. He should have continued checking on it every month to make sure it was getting paid until he verified that his name was off and your name was on. I guess my point is that it's still partially his fault too, even though I understand that you had an agreement and he was expecting you to start paying the bill. I think your best shot here is to write a Goodwill letter to the company explaining the circumstances (be brief and don't give too many unnecessary details) and requesting that the late pays be deleted not only due to the circumstances but also because your friend was such a good customer over 4 years always paying on time. Don't give up if you get a no at first. Keep pushing it up the ladder to a supervisor or someone with the authority to actually make a decision about the account. Good luck, and please come back and let us know how things progress.
I want to echo, don't give up with a couple nos... If you run into a place where you don't seem to be able to get any higher, we may be able to help by finding a contact higher that you can try... You can always go higher, even when the CSRs say that you can't...
Hey all, Thanks so much for the quick reply. I spoke to a Frontier CSR supervisor 10 minutes ago, and she assured me that once the balance is paid, they contacted the credit folks and everything is taken care of. I pressed, saying "so you're saying his credit will be totally unaffected by the three late payments that appeared over the past three months?" and she told me that was correct. I am hesitant to be relieved just yet, since the late payments were reported to the credit rating folks as they happened - so how could they just be erased from his credit history? Is there a way I can double check this to make sure? If in fact it did hit his credit, how soon would it show up if he looked at his credit report?
If they reported the late pays from last year in the first place, they should be showing up on his credit reports by now. As far as removing them from his reports, information providers can report whatever they want to the CRAs. Hopefully the supervisor you spoke with knows what he's doing and will rectify this for you as promised. Unless something is in writing, I'm always a bit skeptical. Let us know how it goes.
