Late payments are not equal; a 90 day or 120 day late pay will cause a large amount of damage and is seen as a very negative mark by lenders. However a 30 day or 60 day late payment will not do much damage.
This mark can be deleted by the lender as a way to keep your business and keep you happy. You should contact the lender and ask them to delete the mark.
We suggest making a phone call and writing a follow up letter. In your letter you should supply a brief explanation and be polite and respectful, after all they do not have to remove the mark.
A 90 or 120 day mark is much harder to erase. If you account is still open, you should contact the lender.
It is a good idea to make sure your account is up to date before asking them to remove the item from your report. The lender will often look at your payment history to see if late payments are common with your account.
If the lender will not remove this item then we suggest you dispute it directly with the bureaus. This is done through a dispute letter; you can create it or hire a service to do it on your behalf.
This mark will stay on your report for a maximum of seven years. Additionally your account will go to collections after 180 days or six months of delinquency.
The reason a creditor is able to remove this mark from your file is because they report to the bureaus monthly. Thus all they have to do is not report this negative mark, the next month.
If your account is not in good standing, it will be very difficult to convince the lender to remove the mark from your report. Also there is a lot of information that says a negative item must stay on your report for seven years.
This is false, seven years is the maximum amount of time most negative items can remain on your report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act passed by Congress made this law. There is no minimum amount of time a negative item has to be on your report.
In sum we suggest contacting the lender to remove this item. If that can not be done then you should dispute it directly with the bureaus, through a dispute letter.
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