How to Remove Late Payments From Your Credit Report

How Do Late Payments Impact Your Credit?

A late payment could hurt your credit, and the impact could increase the further behind you fall. But the exact impact will depend on the entirety of your credit report.

For example, someone with an excellent credit score and a long history of on-time payments might experience a large credit score drop after one late payment. But someone who is already behind on several credit accounts and has a low credit score might not experience as large of a drop from one additional late payment.

How Long Do Late Payments Stay on Your Credit Report?

Late payments can stay on your credit reports for up to seven years.

Closed accounts will stay on your credit report for up to 10 years if you bring the account current before paying it off or closing it. But the late payment still gets removed after seven years. So, if you missed a payment in October 2013, became current on your account in December 2013 and closed the account in good standing in February 2014, the late payment would fall off your credit report as of October 2020, but the closed account itself would remain until February 2024.

If you never bring the account current, the creditor may close the account. It could also send your debt to collections. The late payments—and the potential collection account—will fall off your credit reports seven years after the first late payment in that series.

The date when your account first became past due is also called the original delinquency date or the date of first delinquency. It doesn't change, even if your account is transferred to one or more collection agencies.

How to Remove Late Payments From Your Credit Report

You cannot remove accurate late payments from your credit report. However, you do have the right to dispute inaccurate late payments and have them removed from your credit report.

There are several steps you can take to try to identify and remove inaccurate late payments from your credit reports.

1. Review Your Credit Reports

To start, review your credit reports from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax for details about the late payments. Consider which account is being reported late, when the late payments were reported and the amount that was reported past due.

Keep in mind, interest and fees can lead to larger past-due balances than when you first missed a payment. Creditors also might report to the bureaus at different times, which can lead to differences that aren't necessarily errors.

Learn more >> How Often Is a Credit Report Updated?

2. See if the Late Payments Are Reported Accurately

Try to review your own financial records about the account to see if there are any discrepancies. Even being one day late is enough for some creditors to charge you a late fee and dole out other penalties, such as revoking promotional interest rates. But creditors won't report an account as late to the credit bureaus until it is 30 days past due.

3. Contact Your Creditor to File a Dispute

If you believe there's an error on your credit report, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives you the right to file a dispute for free.

• Submit a dispute. You may want to submit a dispute directly to the creditor that reported the late payment. Include any documentation you have, such as copies of a canceled check or payment verification email.
• Wait for the investigation. The creditor has to conduct a reasonable investigation, which could take up to 30 days. If it agrees that there was an error, it will send an update to all the credit bureaus it reports to and have the late payment corrected or deleted.
• Monitor your credit. You can monitor your credit reports for the changes, which may take several billing cycles to appear. Correcting or deleting inaccurate late payments might help your credit scores.

4. Dispute Inaccurate Information With the Credit Bureaus

You also have the right to dispute inaccurate information on your credit reports with each of the credit bureaus.

Once a dispute is filed with the bureau, it will reach out to the creditor that supplied the information and ask them to verify it and respond to your claim. You may want to submit a dispute with each of the bureaus separately to avoid delays in getting all three of your credit reports corrected.

You can easily submit a dispute online with Experian:

• Go to the online Dispute Center.
• Find the account and the erroneous late payment.
• Choose the reason for your dispute.
• Review your request and submit the dispute.
• Upload relevant documents, such as proof that you made the payment on time.

You can also submit a dispute by phone or mail if you prefer. Equifax and TransUnion have similar systems and options.

Once a credit bureau concludes its investigation, it may verify, update or delete the item in question in its credit file. Disputes are generally resolved in 30 days—although they may be completed sooner.

Can You Remove Accurate Late Payments?

You generally can't remove a late payment from your credit reports if your payment was late and the creditor is accurately reporting what happened. If there are errors in what they're reporting, you have the right to dispute the late payment as described above.

If you missed a payment because of extenuating circumstances and you've brought account current, you could try to contact the creditor or send a goodwill letter and ask them to remove the late payment.

For instance, if you missed a payment because you were dealing with a natural disaster or medical emergency, the creditor might be able to offer you accommodations so your account isn't late and then remove the late payments.

Late Payments That Are Tied to Fraud

One exception may be if the late payment is from an account that was fraudulently opened in your name. Technically, the late payment is accurate—no one paid the bill on time. But you aren't responsible for fraudulent accounts.

First, you may want to file a police report and an identity theft report with the Federal Trade Commission. You may need to submit copies of these reports when you contact the creditor's fraud department and inform them that the account was fraudulently opened in your name.

Once the creditor verifies that the account was fraudulently opened, it could close the account and send an update to the credit bureaus to have it removed from your credit reports.

How to Avoid Late Payments

Although it might be easier said than done, it's best to keep late payments from getting reported to the credit bureaus in the first place.

• Create systems to avoid accidental late payments. You could set up autopay for your minimum monthly payments to make sure the bills are paid on time. Or, create account alerts to get emails, text messages or app notifications about upcoming due dates.
• Contact your creditors if you can't afford your payment. If you're struggling to afford all your bills, contact your creditors to see if there are any hardship options available. For example, creditors might let you skip a payment or lower the minimum payment amount to keep you from falling behind. However, these might only be available if you're experiencing a temporary hardship, such as a lost job or medical emergency.

Remember, there might be penalties or fees if you miss a bill's due date. But if you bring an account current within 30 days, the late payment shouldn't be reported to the credit bureaus or affect your credit scores.

The Bottom Line

Regularly checking your credit reports can help you stay on top of important changes, such as new accounts or late payments. Experian's free credit monitoring can also automatically send you alerts about these types of changes. You can also use your free account to track your FICO^® Score^☉ and get access to free features that could improve your credit scores.