Excerpt from Newsday looks at credit challenges during COVID.

Featuring Katie Bossler, GreenPath Quality Assurance Specialist & GreenPath Expert

Some hardship programs stemming from the pandemic let people defer monthly payments on credit cards, home, car and student loans.  These relief options offered by creditors have proved problematic for folks who thought they were a godsend.

The credit reporting provisions in the CARES Act basically preserves the status of an account at the time a payment deferral or other accommodations was granted. “So if you were current at the time of the accommodation, you should continue to be reported as ‘current’ if you comply with the terms of the accommodation,” said Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center in Boston.

Consumer complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau show people with deferral or forbearance agreements are finding that creditors reported them as having late payments to the credit bureaus and had their credit scores lowered.

Your Options

The article outlines various tactics to take if this has been your experience.

To dispute an error on your credit reports, get in touch with the credit bureaus. To initiate a dispute for Experian, go to the Dispute Center on Experian’s website, call the number listed on the Experian credit report. For Equifax, go to Equifax’s website, Equifax.com, or call 866-349-5191. If you use free credit monitoring tools such as Credit Karma, you can also dispute information directly from their website.

You can appeal a change to your credit score by submitting supporting evidence to the credit bureau (for example, showing a written agreement that you were granted a deferral on monthly payments, not just late on your payments,) You can submit a complaint to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau here on their website, consumerfinance.gov/complaint.

Protect Yourself

Get the facts. “How will the creditor report to the credit bureau, will they still charge interest during the deferment period and what happens to the missed payments at the end of the deferment period,” asked Katie Bossler, quality assurance team lead for GreenPath in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Read the full article from Newsday. 

Have Questions About Managing Your Credit Cards?

GreenPath’s NFCC-certified credit counselors can walk you through tips for using credit.  They will also show you how to get a free review of your credit report. They’ll explain how to read the report and how credit scoring works, and answer your questions. Together let’s make a plan for managing your credit to support your goals.

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Katie Bossler has been with GreenPath since 2003.  She currently serves as a Quality Assurance Specialist.  Katie passionately believes everyone can achieve financial wellness and is grateful to dedicate her work in helping GreenPath remix the American Dream so it works for everyone.

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