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My credit score took a huge hit from miscommunication. I'm a member of Costco who used Amex until last year and switched to Citibank.

Although I never used Amex for transactions, it was used by Costco for automatic membership renewal. I had alerts setup for Amex and paid my renewal in a timely manner. When Costco switched to Citi, I did not receive a card and it was not activated. Costco charged Citi for my membership renewal and I did not receive payment due notice from Citi. Five months later, my credit score has taken a huge hit. I called up Citi who understood the miscommunication and they waived my late fee. I settled the remaining balance.

Does late fee waiver mean my credit report and score will be corrected? Citi call center rep had a wishy-washy answer. I have also subscribed to credit report to see how it goes. Just asking here to check if there is anything that I might have missed that I should do immediately.

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  • Update: Called up Citi. They are aware of the confusion. However, they were unable to fix the credit report and asked me to file a dispute with the credit agency.
    – Abs
    Commented Jan 30, 2017 at 5:50
  • You will need a dispute letter from Citi before filing a complaint with the credit bureaus. I would document every transaction you have with them.
    – Michael
    Commented Jan 30, 2017 at 15:43

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No, a late fee waiver does not mean your credit score/report will be corrected. It will only be corrected if the bank issues a notice to the credit bureaus to correct it. What you should do is file a dispute with Citi regarding this and ask that they look into the situation. If they deem that it was an error on their part, they will issue the notice to the credit bureaus to correct it. You should also contact Costco about notification of switching members from Amex to Citi. I'm more than certain that with such a big transition, they would have notified you either in email or writing. Again, your first step should be to initiate a dispute with Citibank.

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  • Thanks! Will follow up. Costco did announce the transition, but I chose not to open an account. I did not receive a card or activate any account.
    – Abs
    Commented Jan 30, 2017 at 3:31
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    @wagaboy - I believe Citi ended up just migrating all existing AmEx accounts, without the usual credit check or other prerequisites for opening an account. They also sent at least two of my cards to an old address I hadn't lived at for several years, because my address wasn't updated when my SO's was.
    – Bobson
    Commented Jan 30, 2017 at 4:43

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