A polite and courteous request is just that– communicating in a polite and courteous “matter of fact” manner.
An example of an intervention under this category is the goodwill request. A goodwill request is a letter sent to the creditor (e.g. Chase) asking them to pretty please remove the negative item from credit report, in which many cases they will.
Goodwill requests are more effective for mildly late accounts such as 30 days late, with a long account history that were isolated incidents. A creditor cannot, by law, report information that is inaccurate, therefore the goodwill request must not admit the late, and it must make the fault of the late payment unclear.
An example could be:“ My credit card account with Chase acct# 1234 is reporting late in October of 2006 on my credit report. I have never been late on my credit report that I am aware of. This must have been an error on someone’s part. I believe it is possible that it could have been an input error, US postal error or other error that was beyond reasonable control. My account history from the past will certainly show that I am conscious of my credit therefore you must understand that this alleged late payment is not a common occurrence or anything that I feel I should be penalized for. Please remove this late payment from my credit report as it could have been an error by your company”
