Sending payments on time every month, but vendor is cashing them weeks/months late and reporting as late or missed, which is destroying my credit.

I have a repayment plan with the Social Security Administration to pay $100/month for an overpayment from when I was on disability. When setting this up, the agent said I should call the payment in every month, explaining that the checks that come in by mail do not get cashed sometimes for months.

Ok...

So I called in every month to read my card to them for a payment. Each month I would have to call several times and wait on hold for up to an hour to make this single payment. I would have to schedule my breaks and work schedule around these calls.

In June 2016, I couldn’t reach anyone. I called several times a day for several days. I was spending my whole lunch hour and after work on my early days just trying to connect. So I missed a payment for the first time. When this happened again in July, I set up an autopay from my bank to pay them like I pay all of my bills. It seemed the right thing to do.

The first mailed check went out on August 18 as scheduled. Another check went on 9/18 and 10/18 and so on... Not one was cashed until late November. They hit my credit score hard, causing a drop of almost 100 points. (I otherwise have excellent credit.)

Checks are getting cashed anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months late, but they mostly now cash approximately one per month (not from the recent month). Still, every few months they will not cash any and then two the next month, each time sending a late notice and hitting my credit again.

At this moment, not a single check has been cashed for 2019. (Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr just sitting in a pile somewhere..,) And today I received a letter that they kept my federal tax refund because of the “late” and “missed” payments.

I have phone records for 2016 showing the attempts and lengths of calls trying to pay them. I also have bank records showing that a payment has been sent on time every month since August 2016. I am tracking when each check clears. This has continued for over two years.

I spoke with a rep at social security when I received a letter telling me to call and discuss my missed payments. He said it happens all the time and urged me to call my state rep., suggesting it was my only course of action.

1. What can I do about my credit?

2. Anyone have advice on phoning a state rep? It seems like a serious problem.

Tl;dr - social security is apparently so understaffed that they can’t cash my checks on time so they are reporting payments as late or missing and destroying my credit.

Submitted May 01, 2019 at 08:05AM by mcDerbs http://bit.ly/2J2PQwO