Goodwill Requests

A request of goodwill from a lender is another way of asking for forgiveness. Due to a mistake on your part (most notably, missing a payment) you’ve got negative information reported on your account. Asking your lender for a gesture of goodwill regarding that negative information means you’re openly recognizing that you failed to meet your obligations, but are requesting it be removed. Goodwill requests are for accurately reported negative pieces of information that you’re asking to have forgiven/removed. These requests are not for inaccurately reported information. For those, you’d look to file a dispute, which is covered in a different forum thread. Goodwill requests can be made using various different contact methods. The 3 most common contact forms are letters, phone calls and emails. Many believe letters to be the “best” means of goodwill requests, as they are considered the most thoughtful/personal form and are hand-signed by you. It takes more time to construct a letter and mail it out (and has a postage cost associated with it) than it does to fire off an email or make a phone call. Goodwill Letters Since this form of contact tends to yield the greatest success, we’ll focus on goodwill letters. Below are some tips when it comes to goodwill letter writing. An acronym to help you remember the main 4 points is CART : C ourtesy: Be pleasant in your introduction/delivery. Remember, it was you that made a mistake and are now asking for forgiveness. Honey catches more flies than vinegar. A pologize: A simple “I’m sorry” can go a long way. Acknowledge that you made a mistake and that you regret doing so. Owning your mess up is a big step. R easons: Do your best to provide reasons for why you made the mistake, why it won’t happen again, and why the lender should consider/grant your request. T hank: Be sure to thank them for their time. Let them know you’d gladly communicate with them further if they’d like and that you appreciate their consideration of your request. You should be able to construct your goodwill letter in as little as 4 paragraphs, one for each section of CART above. The greatest emphasis should be put on the “reasons” section of your letter, as this is where you can tap into the emotions of the person reading it. Remember, another human being is reading your letter. If you can get them to empathize with your situation your probability of success will increase. Below is a sample goodwill letter that uses the CART format: To whom it may concern, I’ve been a [lender name] customer for [number] years and value our relationship greatly. My XYZ credit card is the absolute best and I use it more than any other. All of my customer service experiences with [lender name] have been top notch. My payment history for many years has always been stellar. I regret paying late in [month(s)/year] however and apologize for my mistake. I take my debt obligations very seriously and am genuinely sorry for falling short this one time. In the months prior to my late payment I was laid off from my job and was struggling financially. While trying to obtain another job in order to provide for my family I did miss that one payment. Since that time I’ve secured a much better paying job and am confident that going forward I will never miss a payment again. I am also considering a [loan type, other CC] through your bank and know that this one late payment could hurt my chances of approval. I would be incredibly grateful if you would consider removing this late payment from my credit report as a gesture of goodwill. Thank you for your time in reading this letter. I will be forever grateful to [lender name] if you are able to grant my request. I look forward to a continued great relationship for many years to come. Have a great weekend. Best, [your name] You can do an internet search to find many examples/templates for GW letters. Typical response time after sending out a GW letter is around 2 weeks, although we’ve seen responses in as little as 1 week or as long as 4 weeks. There are also instances of never receiving a response at all. The overall success rate with a single GW letter sent out is relatively low. While difficult to attempt to quantify and chances of success varying greatly across lenders, a fair success rate estimate may be around 10%. Don’t worry though, as there’s a method known as the Goodwill Saturation Technique (liked below) that if implemented can greatly magnify the chances of a favorable result: https://www.creditrebels.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=96 The most common denial letter response you’ll receive will read something to the tune of, “We’ve reviewed your request and have verified that your account has been reported accurately to the credit reporting agencies.” If you receive such a response, simply try again.