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I have a credit card that I rarely use. It is set up so that the full balance is automatically paid off each month from my bank account.

I switched bank accounts and updated the account details for the credit card, but the credit card company still tried to get the payment from my old account. The next automatic payment would have gone out from the updated account, but they ended up reporting me to the credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) for the missing payment, and my previously great score is now in the dump.

Ultimately, I know it's still my fault. I should've been more diligent. My question is how can I recover from this? I manually paid the balance immediately. I have submitted disputes to the three credit bureaus. Is there any way to "quickly" recover my score? Is there anything I can do to help my dispute case or beg for the credit bureaus' compassion? Any insight is appreciated!

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  • Welcome. There are a lot of details in your question that are unclear to me - for example, when you say "I had automatic payments set up" do you mean things like magazine subscriptions that would be periodic payments automatically charged to the credit card, or do you mean your card was set up so that the full balance for each bill was automatically paid from your bank account? Who have you "submitted disputes" to and about which charges? Do you actually need your credit score to be good right now (are you applying for more credit) or can you wait for this to come out in the wash?
    – Vicky
    Oct 9, 2020 at 11:11
  • Hi, to your first question: I had automatic payments setup to pay the balance of my credit card bill each month. Next, I have submitted disputes to the credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Lastly, the next time I will likely be applying for credit is maybe about a year from now. Although, it could be sooner. I'm not sure. I have read, however, that it could take up to 7 years until my score recovers.
    – Eli
    Oct 9, 2020 at 18:27
  • I've edited your question to clarify these points in case the comments are deleted in future. If I've mis-represented anything please edit it further yourself or comment again.
    – Vicky
    Oct 10, 2020 at 9:54

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Why did you submit a dispute to the credit bureaus? Do you believe that the reported information is incorrect? It doesn't sound like it from your description. It sounds like the credit bureaus are correctly reflecting the fact that you made a late payment. You would send a dispute to the credit bureaus if you believe they are reflecting incorrect information-- an account that isn't yours or a late payment that was actually on time.

Have you called up the credit card company? Normally, if you've got a solid history of payments, call them up and explain the situation, and ask nicely, they're more than happy to remove a late payment from their system (which will then get sent to the credit bureaus the next time they report) and to waive any late fees. Particularly if they should have taken the payment from the new account (I'm not completely clear on the timing here-- did you update the payment information really close to the payment date?).

The credit card company has an interest in keeping you happy since they make money when you use their card. The credit bureaus derive little benefit from keeping you happy-- you're the product for them, not the customer.

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  • I would absolutely have disputed it if the credit card company knew of the new Bank account and still tried to charge the old one.
    – deep64blue
    May 4 at 16:03

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