Late payments are in no way natural for your credit score. They leave a derogatory mark on your credit report, hurting your credit score. If the late payment is incorrect, you can easily remove it by filing a dispute with the creditor by contacting the credit bureau.
But, if you really made a late payment, there isn’t a direct way to remove the derogatory mark. Yes, there aren’t any direct ways; that means there are indirect ways you can remove late payments from your credit score.
As life is full of uncertainty, you can’t know when you will be unable to pay your payment on time. You can lose your job, be admitted to a hospital for a severe illness, or face an unexpected event and be unable to make payment on time. So, today, I will teach you how to delete late payments from credit report.
Is Late Payment Accurate Or Mistake
When you make a payment, the lender reports your payment to the credit bureau. If your payment is late, the lander marks it as a late payment. Here are two things that can happen –
- You made a late payment, and the lander accurately marked it. Or,
- You actually made the payment on time, but the lender or credit bureau made a mistake.
If your late payment is accurate, then it would be difficult to remove it in an ordinary way, and it would take seven years to remove it from your credit report naturally.
But, if your late payment report is a mistake, you can easily fix that error. All you need to do is file a dispute with the credit bureau, provide proof that your report is a mistake, and ask them to remove the payment.
The process will take several weeks to months. But, if your lender cooperates and uses rapid rescoring, then the process can be sped up. Do this if you are in the middle of another large transaction, like purchasing a home or a car.
How To Delete Late Payments From Credit Report
How to Remove Late Payment
As mentioned before, there isn’t any direct way to remove the late payment from your credit report. And, if you want to do it naturally, it will take around seven years. Then, how to get late payments removed? Here are a few steps to remove late payments first –
Write a Good-Will letter
How to write a goodwill letter to remove late payments? You can write a letter to your lender explaining all the reasons why your payment was late and ask them to remove the payment from your credit report.
This letter is known as a goodwill letter. The lender may remove your payment if you come up with a good reason.
But, there isn’t any guarantee that they will remove your late payment. Firstly, it completely depends on whether the lender reports it or not.
Second, the lenders need to be accurate with reporting information to credit bureaus. So, it’s not a very dependable option.
As writing a letter is considered old-school style, you can contact the lender on a mobile phone and explain your situation better.
Make sure to be polite in this situation, and the lender may accept your request. This process is faster than sending a letter; also, it has more chances of acceptance as you can express more emotion while talking.
Pay For Delete
This is the most effective method, in my opinion. Pay for delete method is often offered by debt collectors, where your collections account will be removed from your report if you pay off the account.
This method is quite effective when it comes to removing your late payment from your account. But, I also recommend considering this option always as the lenders need to be accurate with their reports.
Also, keep in mind that you can only remove paid collections accounts from your credit report; but they can be removed from the original account.
The change for the lender to remove your late payment increase when –
- The reason behind your late payment is severe hardship, like – hospitalization or natural disaster.
- If the late payment isn’t your fault, you can provide documentation as proof. Like – your bank made a mistake ( write a letter explaining the issue).
- If you offer them something to remove your late payment.
- You generally make payments on time, and this was your single-time mistake.
What To Do If You Unable To Remove
If you cannot remove the late payment, it will be in your account for seven years. And it will make it harder for you to get a loan on the best terms. Here are the things you can do if you don’t feel unable to remove it –
Rebuild Your Credit
One late payment isn’t the end of everything. You can rebuild your credit and raise your credit score again. But, make sure to avoid any further late payment at all costs.
Take necessary measures to make your payment on time – send payments before the last date, sign up for electronic payment (automatically send minimum amount).
Take new installment loans and make a payment plan no credit check. But, only take those loans if you really need them, and you will be able to repay. Also, some people make ‘fake loans’, which you can also try to increase your credit score faster.
Take Loan With Bad Credit
Low credit score doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to get a loan. There are several ways for people with bad credit to borrow money. You can borrow money from someone who trusts you and make a monthly payment to them.
You can take loans from predatory lenders, who charge higher interest rates and fees. Managing a Co-signer for a loan is the best way.
If you manage a co-signer who has a good credit score, you can get a loan with the best terms. Remember, people won’t want to be your co-signer easily as they would need to pay for your late payments.
Why Late Payments Are Bad for Your Credit Report
Even though everyone wishes they could make their payments on time, this is not always possible. People may face a variety of problems.
They either don’t have the time or don’t have enough money to pay them on time; thus, they are late. Unfortunately, this will appear on their credit record and have an impact on it.
When it comes to calculating your credit score, your payment history is the most important component. This is why it’s always a good idea to pay for things on time.
It can substantially impact your credit score depending on criteria such as your credit history and score, the severity of the late payment, and how long ago it occurred.
Your credit score reflects your creditworthiness. When you apply for a loan, the potential lender will compute your credit score to check if you fulfill the requirements. This is when your credit history comes into play.
Companies who do not disregard late payments when computing credit ratings do so because late payments may indicate that the borrower is too risky. As a result, you may be unable to acquire funding from these firms.
FAQ About the Late Payments From Credit Report
How to ask creditors to remove late payments?
If it is your first time making a late payment and you have a genuine reason for that, you can ask for the creditors to remove late payments. You can contact them through a mobile phone or write a goodwill letter. You need to explain your reason and ask for late payment removal politely. The creditor may remove your late payment. Calling is a more effective way than writing goodwill later as you will be able to express more emotion in this way and know what the other party has to say.
How to remove late payments from capital one?
Usually, banks don’t allow any compromise about late payments. Thankfully, Capital One doesn’t have any regulation against goodwill. So, you can call and mail them to request the removal of the late payment from your report. Just make sure that you have completed the payment before reaching out.
When is it considered to be a late payment?
When your late payment is considered a late payment is an important thing to know. If you pay less than 30 days late, it will unlikely appear in your credit report. Then, your late payment can be categorized as 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and so on until the lender charges you off. The more days you are late, the more impact it will have on your credit report.
Final Verdict
How To Delete Late Payments From Credit Report? If the late payment is a mistake from the lender or credit bureau, you can settle it without much hassle. But, if you are late, there isn’t any direct way to remove it without naturally removing it, which takes seven years.
As for indirect ways, you can request the lender to remove your late payment, write a goodwill letter, or choose the pay-to-delete option. That’s now you can remove a late payment from your account.