Covid19 lease payment deferral ruined my credit score

So they/BMWFS basically added that special code but still reported a late payment; I expect many if not most of the customers using the deferral have the same issue…

My industry was effected heavily by this pandemic and I opted to utilize the deferral since my income was deeply impacted. They assured me that nothing would be reported to the credit bureaus and that it would show as if these payment had been made. I was quite disappointed to see that they added a note on my credit file “affected by natural disaster” and plan to call them about it as my agreement with them was that nothing would be reported. After seeing this post I got even more concerned so I checked my full credit report. At this point everything shows as paid as agreed and on time payments but I plan to monitor closely.

I would suspect that if this does become a thing and they don’t fix the issue for people that there will be some sort of class action against them for this. As someone who has an 840+ credit score, I take this very seriously. I’m not a litigious person but if their actions cause something I have worked very hard to maintain get messed up, then I would be more inclined to jump on some sort of lawsuit. 2 car payments isn’t worth that kind of credit damage especially when you still owe them the payments at some point.

Also for anyone going through this, equifax now offers 6 free full credit reports a year on top of your annual free credit report from all agencies.

I’ll report back if anything pops up on my report or if BMW FS removes this remark.

Creditkarma has a feature where you can file a dispute right inside the app (might be best on the website so you can upload your letter)

That is an amazing score but aside from bragging rights, can you tell us how you have benefitted from that score over say a pedestrian 740 like mine?

My tundra lease is 227, my 500k mortgage is 3.5% and my line of credit is 2,4%. Would having an 840 score be of benefit to me? From the current 740?

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Please please please please please don’t use third-party apps to dispute info in your credit file.

When you’re looking at Credit Karma and its ilk you are not looking at your full credit report. You’re looking at portions of it sent by the bureaus in raw data format to CK, who then maps a subset of what they receive into their GUI.

For something as important as a credit bureau dispute, you don’t want to use a third party’s partial interpretation of what’s reporting.

Secondarily, CK only shows you interpreted portions of two of your four files. It doesn’t even show you parts of what’s on the other two.

Plenty of people will post anecdotes of how this worked just fine for them. You need to be concerned about how difficult it gets to fix something when the first half-assed attempt fails.

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I agree is better to dispute to each bureau separately. I still think it was an IT related mistake, like automated reporting before they processed the deferred payments. Will keep you posted on the results.

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It’s amazing how one single missed payment impacts your score with -100 points!!!

Going from 0-1 lates will do that.

Going from 1-2 or 2-3 isn’t nearly as big of a drop, but that’s not an endorsement for letting it all go to Hell after the first one. :wink:

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Plus going from 820 to 720 hurts more than going from 720 to 650.

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I’m not sure there is a benefit of having a score over say a 750 when it comes to most things but I do know that anything over 800+ (Highest level for FICO) pretty much automatically gives you access to the lowest rates.

Also my point on stating my score was just to show that I’ve played the game over the years and take the score seriously. Sometimes you have to leave balances and pay them off even when you could just buy the darn thing and not pay interest so it’s cost me money to get to a high score. It’s all a game but it’s a game you have to play unfortunately.

Lastly just to be clear…not trying to tell anyone what to do with their credit or give advise, I’m just stating why BMW messing up my scores will really piss me off.

FICO algorithms have no idea if you are paying interest or you are not paying interest.

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Not exactly what I was meaning to say there. I was pointing to the fact that they do follow balances and on time payments. If you pay everything off completely and don’t show balances then your scores build a lot slower…that is my understanding at least and the method has worked for me. I do suppose you could get one of those 0% intro cards and rack up a balance and pay it off over time without any interest and that would work the same way.

Also hopefully this thread doesn’t become a credit score advise/understanding thread that goes nowhere and gets shutdown as I think it would be beneficial if it stays open. I want to see if this issue with BMW effects are larger number of people and ways in which it gets rectified.

FICO scores the balance that gets reported, without respect to whether you pay interest.

Most cards report the balance at the end of each statement cycle. You can have a balance report every single month and not pay interest, just by using the card and paying the statement balance in full by the due date.

A few oddballs (I’m looking at you, US Bank) report your balance as of the end of the calendar month, but paying the statement balance in full every time still results in no interest paid.

There’s a general credit thread. If anything, any of this discussion that’s extraneous to the original point will get swept over there and retained.

I think one benefit of having a FICO over 800 is when stuff like this happens you don’t go directly in 600+ but 700+

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So to go back to the subject, BMWFS received my dispute papers by mail and I called them; they send all updates by MAIL :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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Yes rectifying your score will proceed at snailmail pace!

jedilord, not cool…

This is complete nonsense, stop.

If BMW offers a payment waiver program with supposedly no credit effects then they better damn well not report a late payment. Kudos to the OP for posting here as a head’s up.

“didn’t think the deferral would cost nothing” LOL. Major :roll_eyes:

yeah that was harsh. my apologies. i wish you luck in getting this resolved.

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