“Dear Steve,
I live in Colorado and I have a car loan with Santander Consumer USA.
My payment due date is the 15th of every month. Over the past 2 years I have been paying this loan 2 or 3 weeks late. There have even been quite a few times when I paid the note on the 14th of the following month, which is still a day before my next payment date.
Well I recently ran my credit reports to check my score (I want to sell my home and purchase another one), and it turns out Santander has been hitting me with a 30 day late payment when I pay on the 14th, 4 weeks after my due date.
I thought 30 days late meant you payed after your NEXT pay date, regardless of how many days are in the month. I’m sure they wouldn’t allow me to pay my February 15th payment on March 16, which is only 29 days past due. (Even though that would be one entire payment past due.)
Can a company report you 30 days late even if you pay before your next payment date? For example, if I have a payment due on Jan 1st that I don’t pay until Jan 31st… that is technically 30 days late, but I am still making payment before my next payment due date of February 1st.
I’ve already tried to dispute the 30 day late rating, but Santander won’t change it- what can I do?
Thank you!
Kelly”
Dear Kelly,
I would urge you to contact Santander and ask for an explanation on how they are reporting your account and the current status of your account with them. It could be they are wrong but until we know their side there is no information to use to make that judgment.
How many late payments have you been hit with?
It might also been that if you were unaware of the late payment fees and making the same regular payment, your monthly payment would be insufficient to meet the minimum due plus the fee. If that’s the case then your monthly payment would have been insufficient and you’d fall further and further behind each month.
It sounds to me as if your string of some late payments has left you cumulatively late. And it doesn’t matter what day you make your payment. The critical date is what date and time do they post it.
You should also pay close attention to your monthly statements from here on out and look for any issues like this before they get out of hand.
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
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