When Does a Seriously Late Payment Get Removed From Your Credit Report?

Seriously late payments on credit cards, mortgages, automobile loans and other forms of credit are harmful to your credit score. Late payments indicate to future creditors that you may not pay your bills on time, and that could make it difficult for you to obtain new credit at favorable interest rates. All delinquent payments appearing on credit reports are serious, but delinquencies of 60, 90 and 120 days are really harmful because they suggest a debtor is having extreme financial problems. Late payments, regardless of the length of delinquency, remain on credit reports for seven years.

Considerations

There is little a debtor can do to immediately improve credit harmed by seriously late payments. The best course of action is simply to resume paying all bills on time while keeping balances low on revolving credit such as credit cards. Debtors who are seriously past due on an account should make a lump sum payment to bring the account current. Making a single payment on a credit card that is four months past due does not help much because it reduces delinquency by just one month.

Reporting

Credit card companies and other creditors report late payments each month to credit reporting agencies. Credit bureaus such as TransUnion, Equifax and Experian notate accounts whenever a debtor misses a payment. Information appearing on credit reports affects a debtor's credit score -- a three-digit number ranging from 350 to 850. Scores of 720 or higher are outstanding, while scores under 620 are poor. People with scores above 700 usually pay their bills on time every month. People with very poor credit scores under 600 usually have a slew of seriously late payments appearing on their credit reports.

Options

Sometimes a debtor who usually pays on time may simply forget to make a payment, or the payment arrives a day or two after the due date. In cases like that, some creditors will remove the late payment from credit reports if the customer calls or writes to explain the mix-up. Removing much older late payments is more difficult. Some credit card companies may offer to help by removing a single late payment if the customer makes say, 12 consecutive payments on time.

Agencies

The Federal Trade Commission strongly recommends that people stay away from credit repair firms. Some of the firms promise to remove late payments and other negative information within 30 days, but the FTC maintains that many of the firms engage in unethical business practices and charge high fees without providing much service. The FTC suggests that people troubled by seriously late payments simply make payments to bring the accounts current and rebuild their credit from that point.