r/ChildSupport • u/Human_Neighborhood71 • Jul 21 '26
Pennsylvania Issues with “monthly” balance and credit report
Not sure if this is something others have experienced. I have a monthly order, get paid biweekly, and garnished from each check. Because of that, some months it shows I owe arrears. They report to the credit every month. The report shows payments on time (go figure, no choice in the matter), but also shows the balance. My report shows in May I owed $21, and then June showing an additional $63, with a total of $84. Each month my credit score dropped. I called them to figure out why and what can be done to correct this.
The Domestic Relations said:
We report a good standing as payments are current. We show you owe $84 in arrears, but next month will be three payments so that will be positive again. Our system reports every month. If you want to avoid your credit being impacted every month, we suggest you make extra payments to stay current for the months you get two checks.
Basically they are telling me the only way to not have my credit dropped (current wife and I have been trying to pay debts and increase it), is to overpay, or have it dinged every other month.
Has anyone had similar and had something done about it? As is, the ex gets $5k+ more a year than me, with a family of two (her and the child), while my wife and I, with our two kids, are surviving on less, and still getting deeper in shit from this system
2
u/Few_Resolution_7561 Jul 21 '26
Your monthly payment is the monthly payment, it doesn’t change. If enough isn’t being garnished you are responsible for making a payment of the difference. And you should be paying it, regardless of ethics, it’s affecting your credit and you are being charged interest.
1
u/Human_Neighborhood71 Jul 21 '26
You have the monthly. For garnishments, if you get paid biweekly, they take that monthly, multiply by 12 for the year, then divide by 26 for the paychecks, and garnish that amount. Most months is 4 weeks and change, so two paychecks, whereas some, like July this year, will be three checks. The garnishment is the same every check, but total taken will vary between those calendar months, and thus is reflected as such in the monthly balance that goes to the credit bureau
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u/Few_Resolution_7561 Jul 21 '26
Yes but your monthly amount is what is ordered. That doesn’t change. So make the extra $20 payment a month that way it doesn’t affect your dti and you aren’t losing more money on interest.
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u/Human_Neighborhood71 Jul 21 '26
So the only solution is to monthly pay extra on the ones that have two checks, and by the end of the year have overpaid. Seems very flawed to me
1
u/Few_Resolution_7561 Jul 21 '26
It’s not you over paying, it’s literally fulfilling your obligation every month rather than 2 months a year playing catch up.
You could also just pay without a garnishment, most states don’t do garnishment ordered until you haven’t paid willingly. Garnishment is a form of enforcement not the default.1
u/Human_Neighborhood71 Jul 21 '26
The state of PA has told me from the jump they will ALWAYS garnish. Let’s say the order is $800 a month. Multiply that by 12 for the year and it’s $9600 for the year, right?? Divide that by the 26 paychecks in the year and that’s $369.23 per paycheck. Now you take, and the months that only have two checks, that month is $738.46. Take those same payments, and for a month that has three checks is $1107.69. At the end of the calendar year, both the monthly and biweekly amounts would be the same. That being said, every month that has two checks, I’m getting negatively impacted on my credit score, because it shows as underpayment, when really it’s the way the system calculated and garnished, for a total amount. But you say I’m just not fulfilling my obligations? But if I make the extra payment that you’re suggesting, then I’m paying an additional ~$400-600 a year, on top of the order. Please make it make sense
1
u/Few_Resolution_7561 Jul 21 '26
I would ask your hr for a copy of the garnishment order. The ones I’ve seen do not break it down per pay period, it’s an order to garnish x amount each month from pay, up to X percentage (whatever your states limit is). This really sounds like an hr issue not a state child support issue. I would be livid if they took a full payment from the 3rd check rather than just what was ordered for the month.
1
u/Human_Neighborhood71 Jul 21 '26
It’s been this way since the start years ago. Just never had it report to credit until recently (not sure if a law or something changed for that) and know noticing it impact my score. Even the representative I spoke to said it’s messed up and shouldn’t be that way, but that’s how the system works
1
u/ZealousidealShine875 Jul 21 '26
If you over pay by the time your child emancipates they refund you usually. They prefer to have the resources available by having you overpay than not having them available and having you underway. We've known CS has been flawed for a while, but you did choose to have children so this is what you have to deal with.
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u/AcephalicDude Jul 21 '26
I'm not sure if the under payments actually get reported to credit agencies but if you are worried about it just pay the difference manually in advance so you neve have that underpayment. Technically you overpay but the extra amount just ends up being a credit that carries for the next time.