A couple of months ago one of my banks randomly blocked my online account (I just had to call them and tell that I am still alive).
Long story short, I called them multiple times and they never responded until a month later.
Due to this problem, and the fact that they didn't have any branches in my city, I missed 2 payments.
I was wondering if there is a way to alleviate the impact of this missed payment on my credit score?
You will need to contact the institutions where you missed the payments and see if they can retract the late report. It's possible they won't report it as late at all - I've had cases where I've been a few weeks late on a payment and it never hit my credit report as a delinquency. Some companies may have a grace period before reporting it late, or just don't have the processes in place to report every single late payment.
All that to say that it's not the bank's responsibility to fix your credit report. From a lender's point of view, did you do everything possible (even if inconvenient) to try and make the payment on time (money orders, written checks, etc.)? If you use an online bank that as a history of making it difficult to get to funds, should you use a more reliable bank, or one with a local branch?
Finally, even if you do get a few dings, it's not the end of the world. There are many factors to credit score, and the practical effects of ups and down are not linear. Scores are usually evaluated in very broad tiers, so a small drop might not affect your life in any practical way.
First and foremost, figure out how to make the payment. If I remember correctly, the payment needs to be 30 days delinquent before appearing on your report. At this point, if you've made no payment for two months your report probably indicates a 30 day delinquency and will probably ding your score a little bit. To my knowledge there's no way around that, so there's really no reason to lose any sleep over it. You missed the payments you'll have an extremely minor blemish on your credit history. Online payments are a convenience, find out the address and put a check in the mail.
Once the bank has processed your check, call the customer service people and very calmly and pleasantly explain the situation to them then ask "is it possible if you could please can you reverse these charges."
In my life I've had several situations where some charge would hit a sock drawer card and I'd miss the payment. I've always just paid whatever interest resulted but I would call and ask very nicely, "is there any way you could please reverse this charge," they'd reverse the late payment fee.
Always be nice. Don't bore them to death with your life story. Don't make this the bank's fault. Just ask nicely if they can reverse the late fees.
It's worth mentioning that though I've missed several payments over the years zero of those have appeared on my credit report.
