How to remove late payments from your credit report
Making on-time payments is key to responsible credit use. And a late payment can happen to anyone.
But how do late payments affect credit scores? And are there ways to remove late payments from your credit reports?
What you’ll learn:
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Accurate late payments can’t be removed from credit reports. But its impact on your credit scores decreases over time.
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To get an incorrect late payment removed from your credit report, you need to file a dispute with the credit bureau that issued the report.
- Setting up automatic payments can help you avoid late payments, and regularly checking your credit can help you spot any errors.
How long do late payments stay on your credit report?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says negative information, such as late payments, can stay on a credit report for up to seven years. Late payments may affect your credit scores for that entire period, but their impact typically decreases over time.
Can you get late payments removed from your credit reports?
You can’t remove a correctly reported late payment from a credit report. The CFPB also warns that you can’t pay a company to remove late payments for you either. If a company claims it can remove accurately reported derogatory marks from your credit reports, the agency has clear advice: “Don’t pay fees to ‘repair’ your credit history.”
If you made a payment on time but it was inaccurately reported as late, you should be able to get it removed. Errors like this are the only reason a late payment can be removed from your credit report.
How to remove a late payment from your credit report
You can remove an incorrectly reported late payment by filing a dispute with the credit bureau that reported the error. If all three major credit bureaus show the same mistake, you may need to file separate disputes:
After you file the dispute, it’ll be investigated. If the late payment was reported by mistake, the credit bureau will remove it from your credit report. Look to the CFPB for more guidance on how to dispute an error on your credit report.
How do late payments impact a credit score?
It’s hard to know exactly how late payments impact your credit score. This is partly because you have multiple credit reports and scores.
The three major credit bureaus create credit reports that include information about your credit history, including:
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Payment history
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Account status
Then, credit-scoring companies like VantageScore® and FICO® use this information to calculate your credit scores. Depending on the credit scoring formula, late payments may be treated in different ways too.
While the exact impact of a late payment is hard to predict, payment history often plays an important part in calculating credit scores. Consistently making on-time payments is a good way to keep late payments from impacting your scores at all.
Removing late payments from credit reports FAQ
Still want to know more? Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about late payments:
When are late payments reported?
Late payments typically aren’t reported to the three major credit bureaus until they’re at least 30 days past due. But making at least the minimum payment as soon as you can is still beneficial for credit and finances.
Late payments are typically also reported to the credit bureaus at 60, 90, 120 and 150 days past due. As those days add up, the impact of the late payment might grow.
Do late payments cause any other problems?
Late payments don’t just affect your credit scores. They can also result in late fees and higher interest rates. If you have a new credit card with a promotional APR, you could lose that too.
If a credit card account is 180 days past due, the issuer may close and charge off the account. This means the account is permanently closed but the account holder still has to pay the debt. Some issuers might charge off accounts sooner than 180 days past due.
Can late payments on a credit report be removed before 7 years?
Late payments may stay on a credit report for up to seven years. They can only be removed earlier if they were reported in error and successfully disputed.
How can I avoid late payments?
Here are a few ways to help you stay on top of payments:
- Set up automatic payments.
- Create alerts or reminders on your mobile devices.
- Make a budget spreadsheet and add payment dates to your calendar.
- Review your finances regularly to ensure you can cover payments.
- Check out more tips to avoid late fees.
Key takeaways: How to remove late payments from your credit report
Accurately reported late payments can’t be removed from your credit reports. And you can’t pay someone else to remove accurate information from your reports either. But late payments will fall off your credit reports after seven years.
Regularly monitoring your credit may help you spot any errors on your credit reports. You can request free copies of your credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com.
And with CreditWise from Capital One, you can check your credit report and score anytime without affecting your credit scores. CreditWise is free for everyone, even if you’re not a Capital One customer.
