Late payments are one of the worst possible items you can have on your credit reports because they have the most influence on your credit score, according to score provider Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO). More than 1/3 of the score total is based on your payments for loans, credit cards and other accounts, and each late payment brings it further down. It will be improved every time you get a late payment taken off the reports, which can often be done through a well crafted dispute.
Step 1
Ask TransUnion, Experian and Equifax to send you current copies of your credit reports through annualcreditreport.com. They must do so at no cost every year under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). You can receive your reports online or request mailed copies through the postal address or telephone number provided on the site.
Step 2
Highlight all of the late payments you find on each credit report. The information may not match on all three reports because the credit bureaus all get it separately.
Step 3
Review each highlighted item for mistakes. You have a good chance of finding them, according to Dayana Yochim of the Motley Fool financial site, because up to 80 percent of reports have errors. It will be obvious if your report shows a delinquency on an account that you've always paid on time. Other mistakes are more subtle, like transposed digits in an account number, the wrong opening date for the account, or a too high or too low credit limit or balance. You can use any of these, as well as any other error, to get the late payment off your credit reports.
Step 4
Write dispute letters based on the sample provided by the Federal Trade Commission. You will need to prepare one for each individual bureau if you found erroneous items on all three reports. There may have been more than one mistake in a single entry. If so, only cite one in your letter. You can use the other one if the bureaus claim your initial dispute is invalid and refuse to remove the late payment.
Step 5
Mail out the dispute letter through certified mail and ask the postal clerk to set them up so you will receive a return receipt when they are delivered. The FTC advises this as a way to get proof of when each bureau got your letter. They have 30 days to investigate it, Bankrate.com columnist Don Taylor explains, although this may be extended to 45 days under certain circumstances. Your receipt will let you know when to expect their responses. Any late payments with errors they could not verify will be completely pulled from your reports.
Step 6
File another written dispute on any late payments that the credit bureaus claim to have validated if you found another mistake in the item. You have a right to challenge the same item as long as you have a different basis for doing it.
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