Covid19 lease payment deferral ruined my credit score

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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.

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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.

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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!

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jedilord, not cool…

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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:

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

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I don’t think this is anything nefarious on BMW’s part.

Often times their systems automatically do things and they may not have configured the changes in time.

I’m sure they’ll be able to resolve it.

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I work in finance and though I don’t know your specifics I will tell you that putting any loan (aside from student loans) in deferment is damaging to your score. You just told the financial world that you cannot afford your obligations. Even if they do not report late payments your ability to get credit is affected. Some credit card lenders may even shut down your credit line.

What really blows my mind is that you then had the audacity to attempt to lease a new one a few weeks later. Karma served you right on this one. You tried to beat the system. You should know that the bank will always win. No tears from me on this one.

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My goal was not get sympathy but to really share the experience so other people in similar situation check their score and correct it, if needed, early. I would close this thread now, is not helping anyone anymore…

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It’s helping those who like schadenfreude which is pretty much everyone on the internet.

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Exactly. A friend deferred payment on hisAmex gold, He made sure the home theater expenses would go on his visa black. He wasn’t sure if Amex would be monitoring purchases of those requesting deferrals but He wasn’t going to take a chance. When He deferred His tfs payment on the highlander, He made sure his new Tundra lease would be with a different bank

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Thank you for galloping in on your high horse after a year just to post this. Everyone was waiting with bated breath.

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You’re right – laziness has a cost. Best to work with the bureaus directly.

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quick update:
I called BMWFS to check if they can give me an update and the rep lady was so nice she went and ask the credit dispute dept; they said it seems like an error on their side and they will fix it in 30 days

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Don’t close it. We are monitoring for bad behaviors anyways.

You reporting does help a lot of Other silent readers who are in the same position as you are. They are googling right now what you are reporting.

It was educational even for me to read first person report of how it goes.

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OK, it’s fine by me. I will just ignore the bad comments.

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That’s always part of the journey