Currently waiting at Sanford International airport. Was told as we were boarding that there was no pilot for our flight. Like WTF, how was this not announced before priority boarding?
Someone has an 1.5 hrs to accept or flights would be cancelled. There goes for 4th of July plans.
I should expect a full refund as well, correct?!
TLDR: After a 2024 job loss caused some late payments, I’ve been disputing them with three lenders. Credit One removed mine, Capital One ignored me, and Fifth Third keeps shifting the late marks around month to month across all three bureaus. Meanwhile, my good habits have raised my score \~75points since Sept 2025, but I’m unsure if I’m on the right track and would appreciate advice. My goal is 700 for Fico 5,4 and 2. Currently at Equifax (624), TransUnion(591) and Experian (655).
Looking for advice!!!!
First all, shout out to the mods and this amazing community. I truly appreciate all the nuggets of information I receive on a weekly basis. I’m in the “process” purchasing a home and it’s been a wild ride.
Before I ever stumbled upon this community I did a ton of investigative work on how to clean up my credit. I understood the process that if a negative remark is on your credit, you have the ability to dispute. If on your report after 7 years. I learned this after interviewing but not hiring a firm to be nameless to clean up my credit during COVID.
So I disputed these remarks and were able to get some removed. After I was successfully able to remove all the disputable items I could.
I wanted to tackle the 30 and 60 day late fee’s I had with 3 different institutions. Credit One, Capital One and Fifth Third Bank.
I used an LLM to help me understand the process around courtesy removals or “goodwill letters” of late fee’s. And it’s 100% under the discretion of the institution if they would remove a late fee or not.
This LLM helped me craft letters to send to the institutions along with follow up letter to the 3 bureaus challenging said late fees. I sent emails and certified letters to 5 contacts within each company. Outside of Credit One because I could only find 3.
Within 5 days credit one responded back with good news that they would honor my almost perfect status with them and request to remove the only 30 day late fees I had with them on all 3 bureaus.
I was elated and naive expecting this to happen with all 3 companies. This was mid March.
Since then I have sent 5 goodwill letters to both Cap One and Fifth Third Bank. 3- 623 letters and 3 - 611 letters.
Also I’ve connected with CFPB, BBB, and other consumer services along with contacting the AG within my state.
Basically crickets with Cap one. I have a total of 3 late payments from 2024. Which include 2 30 day late and one 60 late payments. June, July, August.
I work in marketing and the agency I worked for folded and left us with 0 severance pay. The timing couldn’t have been worse. I’ve since paid the debt off (less than $500) and the utilization stays less than 1%.
But I’ve had zero movement with Cap One. Nada. They sent one, basic boiler plate response letter to my second goodwill letter. Crickets since then. So I’ll keep saturating them with certified letters.
Fifth Third are a bunch of turds. I have several late remarks with them
in 2024. Report below.
March 10 MyFico report-
Feb 2024- 30 day late TransUnion and Equifax. Experian is NR
March - OK across all 3 bureaus
Apr 2024 - 30 date late across all 3 bureaus
May 2024 - 30 day late across all 3 bureaus
June 2024 - 30 day later across all 3 bureaus
July 2024 - 60 day late across all 3 bureaus
I sent in a letter challenging the consistency for Feb. 5/3 Bank called to let me know that the letters were received.
I checked the MyFico app on my report day in April to see that Feb says NR for all 3 bureaus. I thought WTF but didn’t think anymore about it.
April 10 MyFico report -
Feb- NR across all 3 bureaus
March - Experian reporting NR. TransUnion and Equifax are reporting OK.
Apr 2024 - 30 date late across all 3 bureaus
May 2024 - 30 day late across all 3 bureaus
June 2024 - 30 day later across all 3 bureaus
July 2024 - 60 day late across all 3 bureaus
So I sent in a letter every week until I sent my 4th goodwill. Using the “saturation technique”, Claude suggested that I use the 611 and 623 letters since goodwill was falling on deaf ears. But was it?? Keep in mind this is still a new process to me and Im using everything I can to learn.
Fifth third also change/updated Experian payment status from “Paid as agreed upon” to “Account is now redeemed/was in possession” for May 2026. This was in the middle of an investigation from the 3 credit bureaus. Research stated this wasn’t an ethical tactic from Fifth third and to rebuttal in a letter. But not sure how much this helped TBH.
On May 10th, checked MyFico again. Experian, TransUnion and Equifax are ALL marked NR for April.
One 30 day late payments was removed from Experian and replaced with NR for the month of May. TransUnion and Equifax were still 30 days late. I thought at first this was a win, but after doing some research. I came to realize this wasn’t good at all. NR isn’t what I’m looking for but especially if payments were actually made on time.
May 10 MyFico report -
Feb 2024 - NR across all 3 bureaus
Mar 2024 - NR across all 3 bureaus
April 2024 - NR across all 3 bureaus
May 2024 - NR for Experian. TransUnion and Equifax 30 day late
June 2024 - 30 day late across all 3 bureaus
July 2024 - 60 day late across all 3 bureaus
During this time frame, Fifth Third would have someone from the office of the president to call me and say” We have received your letters.” And nothing more.
So you could imagine that by the time June’s report came around I was more than interested to see what was going on.
June 10th MyFico report
Feb 2024 - NR across all 3 bureaus
Mar 2024 - NR across all 3 bureaus
April 2024 - NR across all 3 bureaus
May 2024 - NR for Experian. TransUnion and Equifax 30 day late
June 2024 - 60 day late payment with Experian. 30 day late with TransUnion and Equifax.
July 2024 - Experian is reporting OK. TransUnion and Equifax are reporting 60 day late.
Like WTF!?? June is now reporting a 60 day payment now that wasn’t showing up before. July now shows 1 OK payment that was never there before.
I’m genuinely confused on what to do with this information. How does a 30 day convert to a 60 day late?!! What did I do to get a 60 day late to go to OK?! I would love to replicate this over again. Soooooooo confused.
I owe less than $2500 left on this auto loan. Should I pay the loan off or continue to make payments? Was told to keep making payments until the underwriting happens. But now confused if it’s worth it.
The bright side is since September 2025 I’ve been able to raise my credit score 75 points buy by practicing good habits. Keeping utilization low and paying off all balances at the statement due date. Not taking on any more credit cards or accounts. Once again losing my job unexpectedly put me and my family in a bind.
I do see the light at the end but there are some learning pains. And I’m experiencing that now. I would appreciate any advice. Im not even sure I’m on the right track or not. But I’m still hustling.
Love the community and have many questions.
I don’t use AI to write my post and it’s genuine information.
How do I get post to stay and not be removed by mods?