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Reversing a Late Charge on My Credit Card
I had totally forgotten about a payment due on my credit card. I only found out about the late charge of RM5 when I logon to my account to check my statement.
I promptly made my payment by cash the next day, and called the customer service to have my late charge waived. I was glad to see the late charge waived two days later.
What I was worried most wasn’t the RM5 late fee, but the thought of having this late payment being recorded in my CCRIS report. The CCRIS stands for Central Credit Reference Information System is a database system containing credit information of borrowers in Malaysia.
When people apply for loans, the lenders will check the applicant’s credit history by referring to CCRIS. And a black mark in the applicant’s credit history could result in the loan application being rejected. Because I am planning to buy a property and apply for mortgage, I was very worried that this late payment will be recorded in my credit history.
I was given the “Debt Collection” department phone number of my credit card issuer to check if this will be recorded in my CCRIS. Fortunately, and I was surprised to learn, that late payments will only appear in a person’s CCRIS report if they are at least one month old. So, I was given the assurance that my late payment of a few days will not appear in my credit history. Thank God!
