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    Categories: Credit

How Can You Get Rid of Late Payments on Your Credit?

It is never a good thing to have late payments.

They play a big part in calculating your FICO score that most lenders check during your loan applications.

But thankfully, it is not really that hard to get rid of late payments on your credit and give your credit score the much-needed boost.

Check out the top 3 ways to help you free your credit report from late payments.

Ask the Original Creditor for a Goodwill Adjustment

This is a simple idea and surprisingly, it works well.

More often than not, creditors are willing to give these goodwill adjustments if you have relatively good payment history in the past and the two of you already have a good relationship established.

It is possibly the surest and easiest way for your late payment to be removed from the credit report.

With this process, all you have to do is write a letter to the creditor that explains your situation and why your payment was late. Ask them forgive your late payment with your credit report adjusted accordingly.

Offer to Register for Automatic Payments

Creditors often offer to get rid of entries of late payments in exchange of which you need to agree to register for automatic payments.

It is a win-win strategy for the two parties involved. It gives the creditor the assurance that your payments are going to be on-time in the future while you don’t need to worry about forgetting to make a payment or getting charged with late fees because you failed to pay on the due date.

Obviously, automatic payments will be good only if your bank account has enough money to cover the transaction.

Dispute Your Late Payments are Erroneous

Now, this doesn’t mean that you should lie or claim that negative information is incorrect if you know that your payment was actually late.

However, if there are inaccuracies on the entry for late payments such as the amount or date, you can dispute the inaccurate report of this.

There are times when creditors find it hard to verify the exact data of your account history. This means that if you come up with a dispute letter that protests the incorrect late payment and this cannot be verified by your creditor, it is possible to remove the negative entry according to the  Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA.

The accurate information that the creditor needs to present includes the name of the creditor, your name, account number, and payment information.

How Long Will Your Late Payments Remain on Your Credit Report?

Your late payments can remain on your credit report for a maximum of 7 years starting from the original date of delinquency or the date when you missed the payment.

It will impact your ability to get approved for your loan applications.

Having a lower credit score also affects how much your interest rates will be if you are ever approved for an auto loan or credit card. These 3 ways are the best options to get rid of late payments on your credit?

Read this article to understand how credit repair companies help you in repairing your credit.

 

 

 

Jonathan Restrepo: Jonathan Restrepo writes about consumer credit for Creditmergency. He's passionate about helping others achieve financial freedom, so he dedicates his free time to learn about personal finance. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, MarketWatch, USA Today and MSN Money, and on the Associated Press wire.
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