Why did my credit card payment cause a late fee and drop my score?
Missing a credit card payment can quickly trigger steep late fees and a derogatory mark that lowers your credit score across the bureaus by 80 points or more. Because balances and payment histories take about a week to update, people are left uncertain whether to wait for processing or contact support immediately to address the damage.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Waiting out the 7 years for the mark's impact to lessen
- 2Sending goodwill letters to creditors
- 3Calling credit card companies to explain extenuating circumstances
- 4Waiting a few days to a week for the balance or available credit to reflect the payment
- 5Calling customer service to check account status and available credit
- 6Checking online accounts or mobile apps for pending payments
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“my credit on them was not updated yet though, and i'm wondering why.”source ↗
“i'm nervous bc i'm counting on that credit for grocery shopping, so not sure if i just wait or reach out to them”source ↗
“everything was already processed minus the credit. i'm going to wait until next week and see what i'll do about it”source ↗
“i have no idea what i'm going to do... would you recommend anything?”source ↗
“My credit cards take about a week for the balance to update”source ↗
“Long story short, that $9 monthly payment became $50 with late fees and a derogatory mark on my credit.”source ↗
“My payment history is now 99% rather than 100%, and my credit score dropped 80+ on each of the bureaus.”source ↗
“Is there anything else I can do to go about possibly removing this.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 6How to fix a payroll overpayment mistake at work
- 2How did my credit card get hacked while traveling?
- 2Why does a failed recurring payment lock up my bank balance?
- 3How to force your bank to decline payments instead of overdrafting
- 3Why am I in collections when automatic payments failed?
- 2Can merchants send you to collections after a chargeback?