Don't freak out over delinquent payment

Q: I have always had excellent credit. Recently, I discovered that I forgot to mail out my mortgage payment. When I received my monthly statement, I noticed that they had not credited me with my payment, and, when I went digging around, found it among other papers. I promptly paid it, bringing what I owed, current. Just to be on the safe side, I called the mortgage company to verify they had received my payment. I asked them if they had reported this as being late on my credit report. They said yes and that, by law, it could not be removed. Is there anything I can do? How much will this impact my future loan applications? Will I still be able to get the best rates available? How long will this be on my credit report?

A: While consumer credit is in the tank these days, one late payment is not something to be suicidal over. Sometime in the future you might be penalized for the single late payment. The first thing you ought to do is to pull your credit report from all three agencies. See what your FICO score is and if in fact the deficiency is being reported on each report. I don't think this is going to adversely affect you to the point where you should try some remedial action, but it conceivably could result in paying a little higher interest rate in the near term. Pull the reports and see where you go from there.

Q: I went to a lawyer recently and had my will drawn up. Will it have to go through probate court, as all my property is in my daughter's name anyway?

A: You did well to have a lawyer draw up your will. If the property is all as you described, there is no reason the will should be filed for probate. It can be filed but not probated since there are no assets. In the event that you've overlooked the assets, the will is there to cover that eventually. You've done well.

Send your questions to: Smart Money, P.O. Box 2095, Elfers, FL 34680. E-mail to: bruce@ brucewilliams.com. Smart Money