How to Easily Remove Late Payments from Your Credit Report

Many consumers have a few late payments on their credit reports. It's not uncommon for a temporary financial hardship to result in a 30 or 60 day late payment. As long as your late payments are few and far between, they won't have a terribly adverse affect on your credit report. It's when you get past a 60 day late payment, or have repeated periods of late payments, when you need to worry about how a late payment affects your credit report.

Some experts estimate that payment history has a big impact on your credit report, determining up to 35% of your total credit score. If you've got many late payments, or substantially late payments, you may want to remove those late payments from your credit report.

How do late payments impact your credit report?
A few 30 or even 60 day late payments aren't going to have a substantial impact on your report. As long as your account is brought current and you don't continually pay late, your credit report should bounce back quickly after regular payments are made. However, continual late payments or 90 day late payments are another story. Continual late payments can wear down your credit score over time, and 90 day late payments result in a substantial drop in your credit score - almost as bad as a collection account, judgment or even bankruptcy. Creditors see a 90 day late payment as an indicator that you're a high risk for late payments in the future, so that 90-day late payment on your credit report can prevent you from getting credit entirely, or bump you up into a high risk category that will cost you more interest and potentially thousands of dollars over the life of your loan.

Talk to your creditor to remove a late payment from your credit report.
The power to remove a late payment from your credit report lies in the hands of your creditors. If you have a long-standing history with a specific creditor and good payment habits, you may be able to contact that creditor and request that the late payment informant be removed from your credit report. If you continue to have an account with the creditor and pay on time, the creditor is more likely to consider this option to foster good will throughout the future of your relationship. Many creditors have a 'one time only' option to remove late payment information from your credit report. Even if you don't have an ongoing relationship with the creditor, if your account is in good standing or paid in full, a creditor may be willing to consider your request to have a late payment removed from your credit report. It never hurts to ask, so contact the creditor first.

Dispute incorrect late payment information.
If the late payment information on your credit report is incorrect, dispute it. When you file a dispute with the credit bureau, they have 30 days to verify the information is correct or they must remove it from your credit report. If you have supporting documentation to show that the late payment information is incorrect, send a copy of it along to the credit bureau. It's always best to file disputes by certified mail with a return receipt option so that you have a paper trail and can take the proper steps to pursue the dispute with the credit bureau. Even if the incorrect information isn't related to your late payment history - for example, if the account information is wrong or if the date established is incorrect - you can still dispute the entry on your credit report. If the credit bureau cannot verify the account information, they'll remove it from your credit report, along with your late payment history. If you can successfully dispute late payment information on your credit report, your score can improve overnight once the information is removed.

If you can't get the late payment off your credit report, work around it.
If you have a legitimate reason for the late payment and your creditor or the credit bureau is unwilling to remove the late payment from your credit report, submit a statement pertaining to that entry. You can include up to a 100-word statement on your credit report to explain negative entries. This statement gives you the chance to tell your side of the story, so use it wisely. Don't write anything inflammatory or defamatory - just explain why you believe the negative information doesn't belong on your report. Future creditors may consider this statement when they determine whether or not to issue you credit. Also, pay your accounts on time and your late payment history may stop affecting your credit report after 3 years. Old negative items are worth much less than a current good history.

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