Is there another way?

by jen c

I filed bankruptcy about 4 years ago. I retained a couple of store cards and accepted two low-limit credit cards with reasonable rates (12.9%) and no annual fees shortly after filing. I use these cards and pay them off every month. I eventually built my credit score up to 704.

Last January I made a purchase with one of my store cards. I didn?t realize, at the time, that I hadn?t used the card since I?d moved ? almost two years prior. Apparently they were sending bills to my old place and by March the account was delinquent and my credit score had plummeted to 683.

I immediately called and paid the bill and all fees in whole. I tried to have the negative item removed from my report, but the bank said that they had not made an error in their reporting and could not remove the black mark.

Today I was notified that one of my credit cards is adding an annual fee ($49) to my card. They said they were doing this because of the "severely delinquent" account that was reported to them.

My question is; should I keep the card? Will my other cards follow suit? Am I doomed to years of annual fees and high rates because of this one little clerical mix up? Is there anything else I can do to get this blemish removed? It seems so unfair.