I got a letter in the mail the other day from Chase saying I was 120 late on a debt. They were about to write off the debt if I didn't call them immediately. The charge on the credit card was an automatically placed charge from a webhosting company. I was not receiving any statements from Chase for this account, so I had no idea I was charged. I had no idea about the late fees, finance fees, etc, until I got this letter. This is the only ding on my credit report, but it's a rather large ding! I called Chase and paid them immediately. I asked if they could help my credit report. They said all they could do is remove 30 days from the report so it looks like I was 90 days late. I asked if they could do more, but they declined. A few months ago, I was preapproved with a competitive interest rate for my new home being built. Now I'm nervous I won't get that rate, or anything close to it, because of this issue. Does anyone have any words of advice? I find it incredibly unfair that I never received any statements. It took them over 120 days to finally send me a letter about my debt?
Clearly they have your correct address, so I wonder where all the statements went? Perhaps they were sending e-statements to an email address you don't check often? Unfortunately for you, no matter what the situation, it's still your responsibility to keep track of all the cards you have on a monthly basis. In the future, I recommend setting up online access for all of your accounts so you never have to worry about "lost" statements in the mail. Anyway, since you already paid them in full, I'm afraid you've pretty much lost your leverage to negotiate your credit score. 60-day lates, 90-day lates, 120-day lates...they're all late payments, and they didn't do you much of a favor by just knocking off 30 days. It's still going hurt your credit score and make it more difficult to secure that great pre-approved rate you received from your lender. If you've been a good customer and this really was an honest mistake, I would try writing a letter explaining the situation and asking for a complete removal since you took care of it as soon as you were notified. It can't hurt to ask one more time. You could always go the dispute route as well, and just hope for the best.
