FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - BoA ... A hundred point credit score drop for unpaid $79 annual fee.
Old Apr 20, 2018, 9:23 pm
  #5  
Oreto
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 205
Originally Posted by frank3355
I'm 45 years old and have never had a late payment for anything ever in my life. In fact my credit score at one point last year was 850 (it fell to the 820s after I opened another CC). But thanks to my Amtrak visa card, my run is over. I don't use the card often and so don't check the balance often, unless I use it. But my annual fee came due in January and I must have agreed at some point to only electronic statements as I never got anything in the mail and I didn't see anything in my email that made me think that I had a balance due. Finally in March I signed in and saw that I was 32 days late for the January due date. I immediately paid it in full figuring it was no big deal, but then last week I get an alert from my credit monitoring service saying that my score had dropped 100 points!! A hundred point drop for a month late on a $79 bill... how ridiculous.

Yes, I clearly am mostly to blame since I didn't check my balance for 2 months, but I certainly would expect to hear something from BoA before they report a minuscule balance being a month late to the credit agencies, particularly since the balance was only due to their annual fee. How about a phone call, or an email stating in the subject 'Late Payment', or even a letter in the mail? Anything that would have made me notice would have resulted in an immediate payment.
You could also create a Mint account and monitor your accounts from one place. There is also a payment reminder section which could have alerted you to a balance. It's a moot point now but it may be of some use to you in the future. Also, I wholeheartedly recommend calling BOA and asking for leniency. Given a business relationship with them that is spotless as you claim, I think that you have a better than average chance of them "fixing" the issue as a courtesy.
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