Is it legal to credit report me as 30 days late before I am actually 30 days late?
Is it legal to credit report me as 30 days late before I am actually 30 days late?
Let’s say your payment is due on October 1st, and you pay it on the 2nd instead.
Can they report you being 30 days late, which is negative on your credit report?
Well, I think it’s pretty clear that no, they can’t.
Reporting that someone is 30 days late is exactly that, the person being 30 days late.
If you paid it on the 2nd, you’re only one day late.
What about if you pay on the 5th? Can they report you as being 30 days late? No.
5 days is not 30 days.
What about if we pay on the 28th?
By pay, I mean when they get the money, not when you put it in the mail on the 28th and they get it 5 days later.
Some credit reporting agencies and credit bureaus say that if you’re 1 second late, they can mark you as 30 days late.
I’ll say this: there are a lot of things in life that I do not know.
However, I’m pretty sure that one second isn’t the same as 30 days.
Here’s a simple test to give to the cred reporting agency to demonstrate this.
Hold your breath for one second.
Wait, no, we mean 30 days.
Because those are basically the same thing, right?
No! They’re not the same.
They’re completely different things.
What about if you’re 20 days late?
Well, in my mind 20 ain’t 30.
If they were able to report you as 30 days late if you paid the day after your money was due, then why couldn’t they report you as being 180 days late if you’re actually only 30 days late?
Their response?
“Oh, well that’s complicated. You see, it’s just close enough to 30 for us to report you being late.”
There are no “close enough to 30 days” on our credit reports. There are only “30 days late.”
My simple approach, as with any lawsuit, is that if it says I’m 30 days late, I better be at the 30 days late mark.
“What should I do if I find myself in this situation with my credit report?”
You should dispute it.
Show the mortgage company that the November statement says they received the payment on October 27th, which means that you aren’t 30 days late.
Tell them that they need to fix it.
If they do, then that’s fantastic!
If they don’t, we recommend suing the credit reporting agencies, and the credit bureaus, under the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act).
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