How to Get Late Charges Off Credit Reports

A person's credit score is a rating of her creditworthiness, based on information collected by credit reporting agencies. This information appears in a file called a credit report, and provides a measurement of the likelihood that an individual will pay back a loan. When a person pays a debt late, the creditor will often notify a credit reporting agency. This late payment will lower the individual's credit score. A lower score generally requires a borrower to pay higher interest rates on loans. Fortunately, it's possible to remove these late charges.

Instructions

1

Get a copy of your credit report in order to find out which late charges are affecting your credit rating. According to U.S. federal law, you can access your credit report for free once a year. You can do this by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com (see Resources). You can examine the report online, or have a copy mailed to you.

2

Identity any errors in the report. Examine all sections of the report and make sure that the information they contain is correct. Note that only certain information will affect your credit score. For example, if a former address is incorrect, the information is not worth correcting, as it will have no effect on your credit score. However, if the report says a payment was late even though you made it on time, you should take steps to correct it.

3

Contact creditors and credit reporting bureaus. To fix each incorrect late charge, you will need to contact both the credit bureau that recorded the late charge, and the creditor that reported it. Each of the three credit bureaus --- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion --- have different methods by which an individual can report errors. Contact the appropriate bureau and ask for the proper procedure. Also, ask the creditor to notify the credit bureau that you made your payment on time.

4

Ask creditors for a break. You may have some late charges on your account that are in fact correct. In this case, the only means of them removing them --- short of allowing seven years for them to expire --- is to ask the creditor to remove the charge. Some creditors may refuse --- after all, you were late in making the payment --- but those with whom you have a good relationship may be willing to give you a break.