One Missed Payment, a 100-Point Drop: Strategies to Recover Your Score After Decades of Diligence

A Reddit user made what seems like a small error, but it has had big consequences.

The poster is 50 and had a credit score of 775 after decades of being responsible with borrowing and working hard to earn the best score possible. Unfortunately, he missed a payment on one credit card by mistake. He’s not sure if they didn’t send a statement or he didn’t receive it, but he just forgot about the card and didn’t realize that he’d made the error until the next month’s bill came.

While he immediately paid the full amount due, the problem was that the card company had already notified the credit reporting agencies. His credit record now shows he was 30 days delinquent on the card. Devastatingly, this brought his credit score down to well under 650, which means he no longer has good credit.

He’s understandably upset, and he’s wondering if he can fix the situation. 

Why does a single late payment affect your score so much?

After working hard for literally decades to earn a good credit score, it can be very upsetting to find that your score falls by over 100 points just because you are 30 days late with one single payment missed. 

Unfortunately, this is actually very common. People with good credit can expect to see their score decline by a startling amount if they miss a payment just once. That’s because, when you have good credit, the credit reporting agencies do not expect to see a late payment come in. When one does, it represents a major change that leads your score to drop far more than someone’s score would fall if they already had a few late payments on their record.

The big drop makes sense because if you have always been on time and suddenly aren’t, this could be reflective of a change to your financial situation that will make it harder for you to pay debt. Creditors want that reflected in your score right away, so they don’t just keep lending you money based on your past good credit. 

How can you fix a late payment that destroys your credit score?

While it makes sense from a creditor’s perspective that your score should drop a lot if you miss a payment when you never have before, it can still feel unfair to you — and it can affect your financial life in really big ways. So, you absolutely should make an effort to try to fix it. 

The best thing to do is to contact your credit card company via phone or in writing and ask for a goodwill adjustment to your credit record. The card companies don’t have to report the late payment, and you can ask them not to. They certainly can choose to keep reportng it if you were, in fact, late, but many card companies are willing to work with you and take the late payment off your record in the interest of your relationship with them as a customer.

This is especially likely if you have now paid in full, and if you have been a good customer for a long time with no late payments before. You should call or send a letter or email, or both, as soon as possible, to ask the card company what they can do for you. If the first person you connect with doesn’t help, keep trying

You’ll also want to make sure you avoid this in the future. You can reduce the risk by setting up automatic payments so you don’t forget — ideally, for the full amount you charged, unless you’re worried about overdrafting your checking account. You can also work with a financial advisor to create a budget and money-management plan so you ensure you have the funds to make the payments and that nothing falls through the cracks. 

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