[Robert]

Woke up today to a half dozen alarm notifications and emails. Apparently a BOA credit card I rarely use and thought was on autopay, had the annual fee come up, did not autopay in November, and my credit score just tanked from 830 to 720.

I know the effect fades over time until dropping off after 7 years, but does anybody have an idea how long it takes to get mostly back to normal?

Wife and I are hoping to buy a house in the next 1-2 years and I don’t know if it will be back above 760 by then.

(yes, I am devastated, but that is beside the point)

Sidebar – after an hour on the BOA website I’m convinced it’s impossible to set up autopay.

Google tells me I’m not the only person with this struggle.

I’m very sad to lose my alaska airlines companion fare card but I feel like I need to cancel all my cards with them, because I really can’t risk this happening again.

[Stephanie]

I have autopay on my BOA card. Perhaps different BOA cards have different pay options.

My card is a no fee card.

[Jule]

Regardless of what company holds the credit cards, why keep a card with annual fees you barely use?

[Jadey]

Call them and ask for a reversal of the fee. If it’s your only one or your first in a year they will likely be able to reverse the charge.

Alternatively the late payment will stay on your credit for 7 years but doesn’t impact your FICO score much and should be back to the 800s in less than a year.

[Christopher]

It’s maybe 30 days late at most – pay it, and it’ll bounce back in another month or two most likely.

It’s typically longer delinquencies like 90+ days where it’ll linger on your report for a longer time.

[Dawn]

Just call and ask if they’re remove it if you have a good history, they usually do

[Tim]

I had the same issue with BOA. Call them and they’ll cancel the fee. I’ve banked with them for 20 years and I’ve missed a couple payments over that time.

They have always cancelled the feee and charges.

[Chuck]

Call them and ask to reverse the charge and the report on your credit. Most likely if you ask nicely they will do it.

[Darla]

I called to cancel my BoA credit card because it’s the ONLY one I could never figure out how to set up for autopay – they offered me a bonus to retain it so I did.

And I also figured out how to do autopay.

It is possible but stupidly convoluted.

[Tom]

Discover once refused to reverse a late fee 20 years ago when I was in the midst of moving from the US to work on a military base in Germany. I cancelled and they are still trying to get me back today.

I will never go back after your company piled a move like that on me.

[Laura]

Some banks will let you set up auto pay from their end- PNC bank allows this- and sends me a text reminder that they’re gonna pay it

[Jeannette]

Why don’t you just calendar when the annual fee is due so you can then make sure you make the payment on time?

I don’t think canceling the cards is the way to go and of course you do what you wanna do.

I recently had this similar incident happen with my mortgage and my credit went down ridiculously so totally feel the pain you are going through

[Bill]

I know you say that it’s not about the money, but I would also try to get BOA to credit/remove the charge, and get that “documented” by a post on the next statement.

Then I would challenge it with the credit reporting agency, arguing that I felt BOA was wrong, and BOA, when questioned, was more than willing to remove the charge that resulted in the past due hit.

And why should you be “punished” by a charge that BOA reversed.

And you would use the reversal issued by BOA to support your position that it should not be counted against your credit.

[Rich]

Right. It’s weird about BofA. I got autopay setup with Chase and Citibank.

Seems that they like to charge late fees.

[Rissa]

Is BOFA both the bank account and credit card holder? If you call and complain that their system glitched and caused a missed payment and ask them to please apply the payment and reverse the reported missed payment, you might have luck.

Especially if you are willing to embrace your inner Karen and escalate until it’s resolved

[Cris]

Your credit score will go back up the next month. Call to have them reverse the situation.

Be clear that you don’t understand why the autopay did not work.

I’ve had checking and credit cards with BoA since 2009 and never had a problem with auto pay.

[Derek]

BOA has the worst online interface. Could not be more difficult and I have no idea how they get away with it.

I had a similar experience and will not be back.

I hope they work with you

[Jessica]

I’d call and have it removed. I’m surprised it would land on a credit report already.

I’ve had slip ups like that happen and the credit card usually removes any late fee and I’ve never had it reach collections.

[Joel]

I’ve used BofA cards for years. I never use the credit card pull payment feature because I’ve seen it fail back in the 90s.

I always use the bank bill pay service.

The bill payer guarantees delivery and I’ve never had a mistake.

I have had issues where a bill payer stops working with a biller for bill presentment.

They’ve always sent me a notification about problems. But that never stopped me from manually scheduling a bill payment.

These days I bank at Bank of America and use their bill pay/presentment services.

I also have three cards issued by them. Never had a serious problem.

[Brittney]

I had the same thing happen to me with a capital one card. I called them and they removed the late fee.

I was also told me that auto pay automatically cancels after a certain number of months with no balance due.

Not sure if BOA will do the same they aren’t the best in my experience and I refuse to use them anymore.

Good luck!

[Angi]

I’m sorry that happened to you. So frustrating! I learned in a continuing education class from a lender who helps people improve their credit scores that the quickest way to improve your credit score is to request credit limit increases on all of your credit cards (without increasing your spending).

It improves the ratio of your credit limit versus what you spend).

I’m a realtor and did this after the class to see what a difference it made and it worked like a charm.

My score went from high 700 to over 800 when it updated the following month.

I recommend this to any client asking how they can improve their credit scores.

[Author]

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