How to Remove Late Payments From Your Credit Report

So you’ve been working really hard to improve your credit score. You’re paying your bills on time, chipping away at your balances, and scanning your credit report for errors.

But then you see it… a late payment.

Is this the end of the world?

Of course not. In fact, you may even be able to have this stain removed from your soon-to-be-spotless credit report.

Removing late payments from your credit report requires a different approach than disputing credit errors. When you’re fighting to have a mistake removed from your report, you’ll need to be tough and maybe even a bit aggressive.

On the other hand, when you’re trying to remove a legitimate delinquency from your report, you’ll be at the mercy of the creditor. That will require a much softer and more diplomatic approach.

When it comes to legitimate negative credit entries, the creditor is under no legal obligation to remove the information. And according to Experian, the largest credit reporting bureau, late payments will remain on your credit report until seven years from the date of the missed payment.

That said, there are several approaches you can take that may entice a creditor to remove or at least upgrade damaging credit entries.

Write a “Goodwill Letter”

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  Goodwill Letter

  Success Rate

  • Basics: You write a letter to your creditor politely asking it to contact the credit bureaus to remove your late payment from your credit report.
  • Good For: Those with one-off late payments at creditors with whom they have a long positive history.
  • Bad For: Those with multiple late payments at all of their creditors.
  • Cost

    Free, other than the cost of a postage stamp to mail each letter.

  • Time Required

    30-60 minutes per creditor. You will need to research your creditor's contact information, write the letter, and mail it.

  • Success Rate

    Low. You're essentially begging your creditor to voluntarily remove your late payment.

A goodwill letter does exactly what it sounds like. It politely requests that the creditor remove the derogatory information as an act of goodwill.

Now, it should be obvious that this won’t work in all — or even most — circumstances. But it’s still worth a try in certain situations.

For example, it will work best with a creditor you have a long and current business relationship with. That’s especially the case if you’ve made only one or two late payments over the past seven years.

It may also work in the case of a collection or charge-off if you have already fully paid the account.

First, you want to emphasize your positive history with the creditor over the years, as well as your current status.

Second, you’ll want to carefully explain that your late payment was due to circumstances beyond your control. That can include a medical event, job loss, business failure, or family crisis. You’ll help your case by including any documentation supporting your claim.

There’s no guarantee this will work, and it certainly won’t work if you have a long history of bad credit, either with the individual creditor or as a general pattern in your credit report. But for isolated delinquencies, it’s worth a try.

Dispute the Entry

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  Dispute Credit Errors

  Success Rate

  • Basics: You file a dispute with either the credit bureaus or the creditors. By law, they must remove credit errors from your report.
  • Good For: Those with actual errors on their credit reports.
  • Bad For: Those whose negative credit marks are not errors.
  • Cost

    Free.

  • Time Required

    30-60 minutes per creditor. You will need to research your creditor's contact information, and either call or write an email or letter.

  • Success Rate

    High. If the negative mark is indeed an error, federal law requires its removal from your report.

Under federal law, the credit bureaus must delete any negative information on your report if the creditor cannot substantiate it to be accurate.

That means you can try to dispute the credit entry.

Your dispute must be made in writing. And you must request confirmation both that the information was reported in error and that it will be corrected with all three credit bureaus.

If the creditor has no record of the derogatory information, the negative entry must be deleted.

This strategy is best used with older accounts, since evidence of the late payment, collection, or charge-off may no longer be readily available to the creditor.

But this method also comes with a warning. If you use it to dispute every negative entry on your credit report, the credit bureaus may dismiss your claims as frivolous. Use it only in select cases where there’s a good chance the creditor hasn’t retained its records to support the negative entries.

Pay for Delete

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  Offer a Settlement

  Success Rate

  • Basics: You offer to pay the past-due balance in exchange for having it removed from your credit report.
    
  • Good For: Those who can afford to pay an entire past-due balance.
  • Bad For: Those with large past-due balances.
  • Cost

    Your past-due balance (or at least part of it).

  • Time Required

    60-90 minutes per creditor. You'll need to do some negotiation either on the phone or via letter.

  • Success Rate

    Varies. If you can pay the entire past-due balance, you'll have a greater chance of success.

You’ve probably noticed neither of the strategies offered thus far offers you a guarantee or is even legally binding. This strategy is even more of a gamble.

If you have a late payment that has gone to collection, you can try what’s known as a “pay for delete” to resolve the issue and remove it from your credit report.

With a “pay for delete,” you compromise to pay all or part of the outstanding balance in exchange for its removal from your credit report. You must make it clear that you’ll make a payment only if the negative entry is deleted.

This can work with old collection accounts because, in these cases, there’s a very low likelihood of their ever being fully collected.

That being the case, even though the collection agency removes the negative entry, the original creditor that hired the collection agency may not.

And even the collection agency may “betray” you. Collection agencies will do anything they can to get paid. That includes agreeing to a compromise, then backing off it later.

Use a Specialized Credit Repair Service

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  Get Help From a Credit Repair Service

  Success Rate

  • Basics: You hire a credit report service to remove most of the negative items from your credit report.
  • Good For: Those with more than a few negative items and who don't wish to contact their creditors themselves.
  • Bad For: Those with one or two negative marks.
  • Cost

    Credit repair services charge fees up to $100 per month.

  • Time Required

    Very little, since the credit repair company does all the work.

  • Success Rate

    Fairly high. You'll have professionals working on your case. However, it's likely not all negative items can be removed.

The easiest and surest way to remove negative marks from your credit report is by hiring a credit repair service.

There are plenty of credit repair services that can help you improve your credit. This is usually done by a combination of having credit errors deleted and settling past-due balances, often for less than the full amount.

• Basics: The Credit People obtains your credit report and aggressively challenges negative items with the credit bureaus.
• Pros: Starting at $79 per month, The Credit People provides a relatively inexpensive credit repair option with a 60-day moneyback guarantee.
• Cons: The service is one-size-fits-all with no package options, which some customers may prefer.

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Sometimes credit repair companies can even remove legitimate late payments from your credit report.

The good news with agencies is that they’ll handle the job of removing late payments from your credit report for you, with a better chance of success. But the downside is that they’ll charge you a fee for the service. You’ll have to evaluate the cost of that fee compared to the benefit you’ll receive from the credit improvements.

That’s a tall order when you’re first starting out. But if you have a large amount of bad credit you want to eliminate from your report, using an agency will almost certainly be the better strategy than doing it yourself.

One of the most popular credit repair services is Lexington Law. This law firm specializes in credit. The team can use their knowledge of the law to get the best results in removing negative credit entries on your credit report.

Another service you can use is The Credit People. This company will provide you with unlimited disputes and work to raise your credit score on your behalf.

In addition, there are some great services that can help you monitor your credit score for free. Credit Sesame and Credit Karma can both be great resources to use to keep your credit on track.

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Final Thoughts on How to Remove Late Payments From Your Credit Report

If you want to remove only one or two late payments or collections from your credit report, you may find doing it yourself worth a try. You can dispute the entry, use a goodwill letter, or consider pay for delete.

But if you have a lot of bad credit you want to remove, your best option will be to use a specialized credit repair service.

If all else fails, remember: Time is on your side when it comes to bad credit. Most of it will fall off your credit report after seven years anyway.

Unless you’re in a hurry to improve your credit for a specific purpose — such as applying for a mortgage or car loan — you can just sit back, relax, and let time heal your credit wounds.