Aunty was in a major pickle.  Major.  I didn’t even want to tell Uncle about it because he might get mad and make me cut up all my credit cards.

See, pal Cookie called to let me know about Wells Fargo’s stream line loans that refinance at today’s lower interest rates with zero points and $650 closing costs (that’s a great deal).  Aunty was in the beginning phase of talking to Kim, one of their loan officers, when “SMASH! ouch, OUCH!” – I get an email update from Credit Karma (great free service if you don’t select extra offers) that my credit score went crashing from 740 to 660, “WHAM!” because I was over 2 months late on paying on my Nordstrom card.

Having a delinquency on your credit report is like dragging around a leg chain with a big black ugly ball for 7 long years.  There are ways to increase credit scores (maybe another post in the future) but that delinquency will pop up in the negative column and NOT go away for 7 long years – and in Aunty’s case, that means until Aunty is 67 years old!

Normally, we pay off all our credit card balances every month.  For some odd reason, that Nordstrom card was noted as paid by me and put away for 2 billing cycles.  A letter in the mail from a Nordstrom Vice President apologized for any oversight and informed me that my Nordstrom account was way past due.  Oh oh.  Not good.  Aunty got on the phone with a Nordstrom representative and cleared the balance online immediately.

However, too much (I had late fees to pay), too late.  The damage was done because it was over 2 billing cycles late.  A couple of calls to their toll free number resulted in, “Sorry, we are not able to remove the damage.”

Never give up.  That’s kinda what I believe, so Aunty called the phone number on the Vice President’s “currently past due” letter and asked to speak to him.  The customer service rep who answered the phone was Garth – like in Garth Brooks.

Aunty explained the situation (okay, maybe I begged) and Garth said some magic words, “Let me see what can be done”  and put me on hold.

Be still my heart.  Wish, wish, hope, hope.  Wish, wish, hope, hope.

When Garth came back on the line he said, “Okay, just for this one time, we have removed the delinquency….” and a bunch of other great words, and “SHAZAAAM!” the leg chain with all of its weight came off, replaced with Hallelujah and mahalo, mahalo, mahalo.

How wonderful was that!  After the call ended, Aunty immediately sent of a letter of commendation thanking Nordstrom for having such a great employee and being such a great company.  [note from Aunty – please DO send off letters of commendation for people who make your day.  In return, you make their day in a really nice way.]

5 Stars to Nordstrom!  They have lived up to their reputation and high standards of delivering excellent customer service.  They have given Aunty 7 years of cleared credit.  7 years of being able to get investment real estate loans at the lowest rates because of good credit.  This will save us thousands of dollars of interest qualifying us for lower loan interest rates.

Aunty is so happy, Aunty is going to go out and buy a celebratory something from Nordstrom, put it on the Nordstrom card, and pay it off right away.  Maybe something for Uncle, and then I’ll let him know about the credit disaster that got cleared.

Update:  Aunty’s credit score has bounced back!  It is funny how it took 1 day for it to take a dive when the delinquency was reported, and 4 weeks before the score was revised higher after the problem was fixed.  Lesson learned – pay everything on time, every time!