I got my first credit card when I was 19. I didn’t pay attention to the payment cutoff and was late on paying my bill by 31 minutes. That 31 minutes cost me $28 and, angry at the card company for taking my hard-earned monies I didn’t feel I owed them, I canceled that card the next day. Big mistake, HUGE. Fast forward several years, to 2014, when I decided to try the credit card thing again in order to build credit (it wasn’t bad, it just didn’t exist and, therefore, I couldn’t qualify for a home loan). Life happened between then and now, and I ended up being late on 6 payments over the span of 5 years (I’m great with payments now but it definitely came with mental growth). This time, instead of getting mad for my mistakes, I owned them and asked for a little grace while trying to find out, do goodwill letters work?
What is a Goodwill Letter
Remember those apology letters your parents used to make you write as a child after you did something wrong. It’s pretty much the same thing except this time, you’re writing of your own accord and actually mean it. In this case, you’re writing a creditor to be exact and asking for them to erase a blemish on your file in the hopes of boosting your credit score.
A goodwill letter can’t hurt you but it can certainly help you if the creditor sympathizes with your plight and agrees to forgive your previous mistakes.
Who I Reached Out to and What I Said
For me, I reached out to the CEO of the card company via email. Yes, yes, I know the CEO is very busy and likely not sitting around waiting to read emails from people who were late on their bills. I also know, that email address is likely handled by an assistant who knows exactly where to send my request. I chose email simply because it was faster than regular mail and I felt like someone was sure to get it that way. I also utilized Boomerang to remind me to follow up and alert me when the email had been read.
I wrote a simple, to the point, subject line “Request for Account Review” and went into more detail in the email, providing the last 4 digits of my credit card and how my name appears on my account. After this, I gave a brief, yet thorough synopsis of my situation – my current situation of focusing my energies on improving all areas of my life, especially my credit. I admitted my mistakes with handling my account in the past and while I didn’t make excuses, I did give a little background on the state of my life when the late payments occurred. I ended by letting them know I didn’t feel the old marks were indicative of my current self and asked if it were possible for a goodwill adjustment.
So, Do Goodwill Letters Work
I actually received a response back in the form of a telephone call less than a week later. I again explained the circumstances at the time of my late payments, which was actually all the same circumstance even though the lates were over a span of 5 years. The individual I spoke with was very lovely and let me know they understand various things do happen throughout life and that they would honor my request.
Thus far, it’s really only helped my peace of mind but that’s certainly not to be discredited. I’ve definitely been using my card the right way for quite some time and it was a downer thinking old mistakes were going to be hindering greater progress for 7 years. In terms of any changes to my credit, they haven’t happened just yet and I don’t expect to see them for about a month based on what I was told. I will definitely update this post once the remarks have been removed.
If you’ve used a goodwill letter in the past, did you have positive results from it? If you haven’t used one, but have one or more late payments, what has stopped you?
