Manual credit card payments vs auto-pay changed my score by 40 points

Back in 2018 I always used auto-pay. Set it and forget it. Then my bank changed their processing dates and a payment hit 2 days late. Dropped my score from 740 to 700. Switched to manual payments after that. I pay everything on the 15th no matter what now. Stuck to it for 6 months and watched it climb back up. Anybody else have auto-pay mess things up for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

emma_mitchell6d ago

nah i gotta disagree here man. auto-pay has saved my score way more than it's hurt it cause i'm terrible at remembering dates and the one time my bank screwed up they reversed the late fee and credit bureaus removed it when i called. manual payments are fine if you're on top of it but most people aren't and a single late manual payment is way harder to fix than an auto-pay glitch.

rivera.holly5d ago

YEAH EXACTLY. People forget that one missed manual payment can wreck your score for YEARS and it's way harder to fight a late fee you caused yourself than one the bank messed up. That's the BIG difference nobody talks about. With auto-pay, if something goes wrong, it's the bank's fault and they HAVE to fix it. But with manual payments, you're the one who forgot so the credit bureaus don't care. I've had auto-pay on everything for like 5 years now and my score jumped over 100 points just from never missing a deadline. Plus most banks these days send alerts BEFORE they pull the money so you can cancel if funds are low. It's literally just safer overall.