Autopay is a convenience that provides consumers with peace of mind. You receive a confirmation and trust that it’s one less thing you have to think about getting each month. But what happens when the company silently disables your payment, fails to notify you, and then reports you to the credit bureaus for a missed payment?
At Thomas R. Breeden, P.C., we’ve seen this exact scenario. For whatever reason—whether it’s a switch to a new billing platform, software updates or any other glitch in the system—something in the process wipes out what used to be perfectly functioning autopay. Instead of taking responsibility for their technical failure, these corporations often treat the resulting delinquency as your fault, which ultimately threatens your financial reputation for a mistake they committed.
The damage is not just a late fee
When a company unilaterally cancels your autopay without notice, the consequences are more than just a minor inconvenience. A single reported late payment can:
- Tank your credit score by dozens of points
- Increase interest rates on future loans or existing credit cards
- Jeopardize housing applications or employment background checks
It is fundamentally unfair for a corporation to provide you with an autopay service and break that service through their own negligence. You should not have to pay for their mistake by taking a hit to your credit report. Additionally, under Virginia’s Consumer Protection Act, companies have to notify consumers of material changes.
Holding them accountable: Your legal recourse
It is important to understand that if a company’s mistake has affected your credit report, you are not powerless. If you have been victimized by an autopay cancellation you didn’t initiate, there are several legal avenues that exist to set the record straight:
- The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA): If a company reports inaccurate information to credit bureaus, they are legally obligated to correct it. This includes missed payments that were caused by their own billing failures. If they refuse to fix the error after a formal dispute, you may have grounds for a federal lawsuit.
- Virginia Consumer Protection Act (VCPA): In Virginia, companies are prohibited from using unfair or deceptive practices. Failing to notify a consumer of a material change to their payment arrangement, and then seeking to collect fees or damage credit based on that failure, can fall under this protection.
- Breach of Contract: When you enroll in autopay, you enter an agreement. If the company fails to execute that agreement through no fault of your own, they may be in breach of their service contract.
Don’t pay for their mistake
If you have proof that your autopay was properly configured and the company disabled it without warning, they should be held responsible for your damaged credit. You have the right to a clean financial record and an accurate credit report.
At Thomas R. Breeden, P.C., we protect consumers in Manassas and throughout Northern Virginia who face unfair treatment from large corporations. We can help you fight back against unfair damage to your credit report.