Ouch!. A 30 day late for $1.04 is just as bad a a 30 day late for $5000. Forget about just calling in and talking to a normal CSR. You need to do some letter writing and initially target the people in the collections department of the bank. They are ones who report late payments to the credit bureaus. If no success, direct your letters to someone higher up. Wife had a similar issue last year. We manage to remove a 60 day late for $5.92 from her Macy's account. But it took about 3 tries over a span of 5 months. Sometimes you get lucky and find someone that is sympathic to your cause.