How To Get A Late Payment Removed From Credit Report?
Introduction This is one of the reasons why it is advisable to ensure that no payment is made past the due date as it will greatly affect credit score. There is a provision to have the late payment information remain on your credit report for about 7 years. A single missed payment can cost up to 110-130 points, but no one wants to lose such an amount of points. This means that you will be precluded from having better chances of being approved for loans, credit cards mortgages, and so on in the future. That’s why it is highly advisable to pay any late payments on your credit report as soon as possible. Here is a guide that can help people in achieving that, read on to find out how.
Run A Credit Report From All Three Bureaus The first thing that needs to be done is to look at the credit reports that include the three credit reporting agencies namely Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. To obtain your credit reports, you are allowed to do so from the annual credit report. com for free. Take time and examine each report to identify any note showing a payment made behind the due date. Also, ensure to consider which credit bureau has reported the lateness in payment. This information will be valuable when one is disputing the late payment is to be made.
Contact Your Creditors In case you notice a recently paid account in your report, you should first follow up with your creditor. It may be that it was reported that a payment was done late when in fact it was done early enough. Approach the creditor and consider explaining the delay in payment through the late payment notation. Politely tell them to check your payment history and if it is all right on their side, kindly ask them to remove the notation of late payment. Any communication regarding the matter should be documented and provided to the creditor.
Dispute the Late Payment If the creditor does not delete the late payment upon being contacted, the next possible procedure is to challenge the late payment directly to the credit bureaus. Regarding the submission of the disputes, it is possible to file them either online or through mailing. When refusing the payment or the non-payment of the amounts, show any documents that you have to substantiate that you complied with the payment on time and in due form. Proofs such as canceled checks, bank statements, receipts for payment, and any other document that can prove that you made the payment are also important as well as any correspondence between you and the creditor.
The credit bureau must have 30 days to investigate your dispute, although this time can vary depending on the credit bureau. If the creditor cannot support this contending that the payment was made late, the credit bureau must delete it from the credit report. However, if the investigation has not helped in solving the issue at hand, you can request the credit bureau to include a 100-word statement on why you think the accounts are inaccurate to your file.
You should consult a credit repair company. If the late payment is still reflected on your credit report after using self-efforts then consider engaging the services of a credit repair company especially if there are multiple problems in your credit report. They have people who will help with credit report checks and in case of any malpractice, they will assist the client in correcting it. They employ sophisticated dispute resolution procedures that are effective in most cases. But of course, you must take time and effort to ensure that you can find an affordable and good company.
Try Goodwill Letter Campaign If the delayed payment cited was a one-off affair or one committed inadvertently, then consider writing goodwill letters to the credit. A goodwill letter is written when you pay your bill a few days after the due date and it provides the reason for the delayed payment besides asking the creditor to remove it from your credit history. As for the more traditional letter campaigns, goodwill ones have been especially successful in persuading creditors to delete the late payments. Thus, it is also reasonable to use this method, as it has the same goal of helping people find information quickly and efficiently.
Negotiate Pay-for-Delete This is the actual act of tendering the amount owed to the creditor and negotiating with them to have the negative item erased from your credit profile. It is however important to know that the actual creditor may not agree to this offer but there is no harm in trying. There are tons of folks who have managed to remove late payments through pay-for-delete options. If agreement has been reached ensure that it is put down in writing before making the payment to the creditor.
Wait It Out Last but not least, it is always an option to simply wait and not do the thing that is stressing one out. Coin payments, as a rule, are reported for 7 years and do not remain on the credit report. The other thing to note is that whatever is on your credit report also has an age and therefore the late payment will continue to be a blemish on your credit report until the period elapses, the best thing to do is to ensure that the rest of your credit report is clean; pay all the bills on time, try to reduce the credit utilization ratio, apply for credit only when necessary, etc.
Conclusion A bad record on a credit history profile is never desirable, but it is not the worst thing that can happen either. As such, with some systematic work, it is quite possible to have such erroneous late payments deleted from the credit report and, consequently, to recover those lost points to one’s credit score. One should be adamant when requesting the removal of the late payment from the credit report, but at the same time be polite when dealing with creditors and credit bureaus. Additionally, if necessary, do not hesitate and consult with credit specialists. And during this process, ensure that you work on improving your overall credit rating.
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