I got a loan default notice!

LMAO... you should have taken the opportunity to ask for a IR reduction.... all the KOOL kids are doing it.

As a follow up, you should get it in writing they didn't send a notice to the rating agency... .just for back-up.

W67: I asked them not to send a notice and they refused (despite being able to see that the payment had already been made). What else can I do?

NYC10023,
It is sometimes hard to control what those guys report or not report to the rating agencies. Wait a few months, pull your credit report and if it does show late, try to dispute it with the company who pulled your credit.

I'm really annoyed at myself, I suppose I could have set it on auto-pay but I like manually putting it in online.

An excellent credit score is mostly for getting good interest rates--are you planning on doing any other borrowing?

Nope, but it's annoying.

10023, you had to have been 30 days past due for anything to show up on your credit report.

I am, AR. I always pay on the last day that it's really due (which is 15 days past when it's "due"). So if last day to pay w/o penalty is August 16th, it was due August 1st. Which means as of Sept 1st, I'm 30 days overdue, even though it was 15 days past the last due due due date.

They waived the late charge without my asking, but I'm wondering if I can pin them on not sending it to the agency somehow. I am almost sure that there could have been an online glitch (but no proof) as I have a vague memory of getting my email reminder and then setting it up.

well, thanks a lot nyc10023. Now your going to increase the statistics of people who are behind on their mortgage and when they come out, bears like nyc10022 and stevejhx are going to say "Look at all the peopel who are late. Prices are going to crash!"

Since short-term interest rates are essentially zero, what is your point in paying 15 days late? You left yourself no margin for error, and for what? You made no money on those funds for the 15 days.

Um, exactly. It's this terrible need I have to pay bills on time but on the last possible due date. I am earning ZERO interest on checking, and the money has been there all along. I can't seem to bring myself to schedule payments for the day before or a week before even though I set it up online then.

The_President: I am probably the only one who is contributing to that stat, no worries. If I look at my credit report, the only late payments (cc-s, never been late on mtge) in the last 10+ years have been because I went away on vacation and forgot to schedule payment.

I wonder if my name & contact info is going to be sold to people who will now harass me with all kinds of illegitimate financial counselling offers.

"I am earning ZERO interest on checking, and the money has been there all along. I can't seem to bring myself to schedule payments for the day before or a week before even though I set it up online then."

You realize what you're doing makes no sense, yet you continue to do it????

I'm almost perfect, but have some psychological hangups. This is one of them.

10023, don't sweat over it. in the old days it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest, and even now it probably matters very little.

i was accidentally late on a bill a few months ago, the husband recently met with the banker to review some things, wasn't on the credit report (citibank no less).

they've got bigger (or smaller, depending on how you look at it) fish to fry.

besides, you may be making almost zero, but the bank is probably lending those dollars out at 30% interest. let the fuckers wait.

I found this information on credit.com (which is an online credit education website run by a former NJ state consumer affairs official).

The basic crux of it is the occasional 30 day late payment will only have a temporary impact on your credit score so unless you're in the market for credit, it should not have any impact at all.

http://www.credit.com/credit_information/credit_report/Late-Payment-Secrets-Revealed.jsp

"Because scoring systems are so focused on predicting whether or not you’ll go at least 90 days late, surprisingly, an old 30 or 60 day late payment is actually not that damaging to your credit scores as long as it is an isolated incident. Only when your accounts are currently being reported 30 or 60 days past due on your credit reports, will your credit scores plummet temporarily.

If your 30 or 60 day late payments are an infrequent occurrence, this kind of low level late payment will damage your credit score only while it is being reported as currently past due. They shouldn’t cause lasting damage to your credit score after this period passes unless you make 30 or 60 day late payments on a regular basis. In this case, the fact that you are habitually late with your payments will cause long term damage to your credit scores.

It’s a whole new ballgame once you have a 90 day late payment, however. If you have been over 90 days late (even just once), the credit scoring models consider you much more likely to do it again. One 90 day late payment will damage your credit for up to seven years. From a scoring perspective, a single 90 day late payment is as damaging to your credit scores as a bankruptcy filing, a tax lien, a collection, a judgment or repossession. Being 90 days late causes you to be viewed as a possible “repeat offender” and a higher risk to creditors. Here’s a summary of how late payments impact your credit scores:

30 days late – This record will damage your credit scores only when it is reported as “currently 30 days late.” The exception is if you are 30 days late often. Otherwise, a 30-day late payment will not cause lasting damage.
60 days late – This record will also damage your credit scores when it is reported as “currently 60 days late.” Again, the exception is if you are 60 days late often. Otherwise, it will not cause long term damage.
90 days late – This record will damage your credit scores significantly for up to 7 years. It doesn’t make a difference whether or not your account is currently 90 days late. Remember, the goal of the scoring model is to predict whether or not you will pay 90 days late or later on any credit obligation. By showing that you have already done so means that you are more likely to do it again compared to someone who has never been 90 days late. As such, your credit scores will drop.
120+ days late – Late payment reporting beyond the initial 90 day missed payment does not cause additional credit score damage directly. However, there is an indirect impact to your scores. At this point, your debt is usually “charged off” or sold to a 3rd party collection agency. Both of these occurrences are reported on your credit files and will lower your credit scores further."

Don't let the credit rating agencies and the idiots whose mailing lists your address is sold to for marketing purposes even get inside your head. Whether your credit score is 800 or 200 you will still be bombarded by spam voicemails from smarmy con artists promising to help you with your high mortgage payment (even if you don't have one, or if you have a 5.75% fixed rate mortgage already) and offering you new credit cards whether you want them or not, and promising the greatest and lowest car insurance rate known to man. The car insurance spam mail is my favorite, since I have not owned a car in almost 20 years. If you never borrowed a dime again, paid cash for everything, and hoarded savings like a miser, why would you care what some idiot does to your credit rating? People have let "credit rating" rule their lives.

We had something similar. Instead of paying on line this time, we sent a check. BUT PAID 100% on time. Got loan default, foreclosure notices. Called 10 times livid. They claimed no knowledge why I would have been sent such things. I sent threatening letters. Demanded periodic credit reports at their expense and a full rebuttal letter. They are now officially ignoring me. Next week I will harass again. I WANT AN EXPLANATION!!!

It was Chase, BTW.

I'm still upset about it as I get pissed if my credit rating drops below 800.

Is it insecurity about parting with that money? I'm always kicking & screaming about paying those bills, too. I always remember a friend who paid the bill the moment it arrived; I've been saying FOR YEARS that I'm going to emulate him. Maybe next month .........

drdrd: absolutely, there's a sense of insecurity. UWSer: bingo, same bank. 3 letters in 3 days.

Don't worry about a minor blip on credit rating. Think about it, 5 yrs from now if the major lenders decide to worry about credit scores, they will have nobody to lend to. This current financial episode will have cause major changes to occur in underwriting in the future. They might even start caring about income again.

How can you seek consolation here for being irresponsible? Normally you seek to pay your bills as late as possible, but then you don't even set it up automatically? You want to be comforted because you went away on vacation for 3 weeks and one of items on your checklist before jaunting off to a care-free holiday world wasn't to take care of your bills?

Yes, the people who responded some years ago to your desire for a large amount of money to buy your home actually have some bite when you go too far and don't pay on time and within their grace period. That's why the industry has credit reports, because the next guy might not want to treat you so favorably given that you actually don't treat lenders so favorably in return after you borrow their money.

Next time when you decide to play at the absolute edge, you might do it with a harness.

sorry to hear about your late payment. but clearly you were not as obsessive about your credit score as keeping the money in the bank for the last possible second. i would change the mortgage to be an automatic pay. it will save you so much hassles.

i too worry about credit scores. i got a call from a debt collector about a hospital co-pay bill that I never got (they had my old address and i guess never forwarded me the bill). i was very upset that this 2 year old bill was lying around. the hospital went broke and shut down and i believe they never sent me a bill. the debt collector promised that if i paid they would not report to the credit agencies. this could have ruined my credit over a 75 dollar bill.

To tag on the credit discussion, seems like there are some credit-smart people on here... if you have an open credit card with a zero balance, is it better for your credit in the near term to close the account out, or just keep it open and don't use it?

It's best generally to keep it open and USE it occasionally. Don't close accounts, credit rating is also based on percentage of available credit in active use. That is one reason many people are seeing their credit ratings shredded, banks are lowering limits changing the in-use percentage.

batraa, last i read the FICO system was changed to not include any one-time charges that were initially under $100. forgotten parking tickets, situations like yours, were taken out of the scoring system.

Arlodog, I had an RBS credut card that I wasn't using, but was afraid to close, and they closed it for me (citing security risks or such some crap). Don't know if this has become standard procedure.

The way to get a high credit score is to pay your bills early, not just on time, and pay more than the required amount. If you have a loan of any type, try to pay it off in full before it is due.

lowery - there's no category that says "paid early". It's either paid on time or late.....

Aboutready - I've been told that it is better to have as few credit cards as possible to keep the best score when going for a mortgage - as the credit card companies look at the total credit lines you have on your credit cardsand make the worst assumption - that all of a sudden you will go out and charge to the max.

Don't work with Susan there .....

ph41, it depends on the buyer. credit card companies are closing accounts that aren't used regularly as they have no recent repayment history with the client and are afraid that if disaster strikes the client may run up the credit. as an example, someone has $10000 in credit lines, $2000 active. good. close $6000 worth of credit availability, and you have $2000 out of $4000 used, much less good.

an excessive number of store accounts is frowned upon. total available credit is often looked upon as a good sign. it takes a long time and good payment history to get large lines of credit from some credit sources. others not so much. so, don't use your pc richards card but do keep your visa and american express active enough to maintain the accounts.

I have had two similar experiences in recent months, both with mortgages of less than $28,000.

1. first was Key Bank, secured by $400,000 coop. Citibankonline switched payments from check to electronic this spring. 1st four didnt register, bank called almost daily. six weeks ago i conferenced the bak with citi's 800 #, citi confirmed all payments made on time, gave dates and amounts. Still called 3-5x times/week.

2. second is M&T,one of four mortgages ins ame Texas HOA. Bank misapplied June payment by creditting
different account. citi has confirmed that also. I have told bank's collectors so often I need medicine for a sore throat, M&T now calls 15-25x/week.

the significant .... the banks are scared shitless of going insolvent ... the calls seems ti reflect an extraordinayr tho unstated anxiety about the true quality of their loan portfolios

thanks for the info AboutReady about the 100 dollar minimum. very comforting although i paid the bill.

batraa, no problem. in normal times few look at any health care related delinquincies, as they have almost no correlative relationship to future default patterns, and they are riddled with administrative error. but we do not live in normal times.

there are actually two issues in one's credit health, maintaining a good credit rating (probably a bit easier than most expect) and keeping the creditors happy and willing to extend credit (harder). what lowery points out goes to the latter issue, although early probably isn't as important as paying more than the minimum and not routinely increasing outstanding credit levels.

back in the day, your loan officer would sit down with you and your credit report and have a chat about which problems were errors and which were real. i had stunning errors on my credit report for each of the four home purchases we made. if you don't need the score to be perfect, ignore it. most creditors can dissect a credit report quite easily, if they must. unless you really need credit now, don't sweat it.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/CreditCardSmarts/credit-cards-use-them-or-lose-them.aspx

i went thru the credit process last year when we bought our house. one bank (astoria i recall) was terrible and kept increasing the downpayment amount from 20 to 25 to 30 due to the fact that this was a vacation property. kept askimg me for more info even though our liquid assets were more than the entire purchase price. we then used first republic (part of bank of america now via ML).

they were very good. got something done very quickly.

Generally, you have more leverage to get the bank to fix things before you make the last payment than after. So, this won't help in this situation, but in the future I'd say something like "clearly this was an innocent mistake, and I'd like to pay, but can we make sure that this isn't going to affect my credit report?" You'll probably be talking to someone in their collections department who is very motivated to get you to pay, so they'll take care of you.

On the other hand, once you've paid you're back to dealing with typical bank customer service, which means that you may or may not be able to get them to do anything useful (and, frankly, they're reporting accurate information, so there's some merit to them reporting the late payment).

when my credit was reviewed, i actually got burned for having too many lines of credit, it said like "too many accounts" as a reason for a lower score. weird b/c i really didn't have too many. but even if you close them, they still show on your report. so no point in closing them. just open fewer in the first place, and try to get those few to give you the biggest lines of credit possible. you should use less than 30% of your available credit.

You could write them a letter, describing the inadvertent late payment and the immediate correction, and end it with a request for any report that was made to a reporting agency to be sent to you. Then you can contest it with the agency, which you could do anyway in a couple of months by requesting a once-a-year free copy of the report. You could include a paragraph in the letter which said that, if you did not hear from them in xx days, you will rely on that to assume that they filed no report and will file no report based on this incident. Then keep the letter as part of what you can later if necessary submit to appeal the rating problem.

But, really, I think that this won't prove to be a problem to you, and will disappear soon enough. Good luck.