How Long Does a Late Payment Stay on Your Credit Report?

Find out how long a late payment can stay on your credit report and what you can do to remove it.

Checkout this video:

The Credit Reporting Time Limit

Federal law stipulates how long a late payment can stay on your credit report. A late payment reported by a lender can stay on your credit report for up to seven years. If you’re hoping to have a late payment removed from your credit report sooner, you might have some options.

Federal law

Federal law gives you the right to get a free credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can request a free report from each company at AnnualCreditReport.com.

If you want to order your report by phone or if you are experiencing other difficulties, call 1-877-322-8228. You will need to provide your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth to verify your identity.

If you want to order reports from all three companies at the same time, you can do so by mail. You will need to complete an Annual Credit Report Request Form available on the website AnnualCreditReport.com and mail it to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

State law

Late payments can stay on your credit report for up to seven years. The seven-year reporting clock starts from the date of the first missed payment that led to the delinquency. If you bring your account current after that, the late payments will still show on your credit report, but they will be removed seven years from the original delinquency date.

The Effect of a Late Payment on Your Credit Score

A late payment can stay on your credit report for up to seven years and can negatively impact your credit score. A late payment can also lead to higher interest rates and could make it difficult to get approved for new credit.

Payment history

Your payment history is the record you’ve established by either paying or not paying your bills on time. Payment history makes up 35% of your FICO® Score, so it’s an important factor in calculating your score.

Late or missed payments can stay on your credit report for up to seven years and can negatively impact your score for the entire time they’re there. If you have a late payment, consider taking these steps to improve your payment history and improve your score:

-Pay any past-due amounts as soon as possible.
-If you have trouble remembering to pay your bills on time, set up automatic payments from your checking or savings account.
-If you can’t afford to pay the entire past-due amount at once, contact the creditor and explain your situation. Many creditors are willing to work out a payment plan that works for both parties.

Credit utilization

Your credit utilization is the amount of revolving credit you have used divided by your total credit limit. For example, if you have a $1,000 credit limit and use $250 of that credit, your credit utilization would be 25%.

Credit utilization is one factor that makes up your credit score—the higher your credit utilization, the lower your score will be. That’s because when you use more of your available credit, it shows that you may be struggling to manage your debt and could be more likely to miss future payments.

Keep in mind that your credit utilization will be different on each of your accounts—so if you have multiple cards, make sure to check each one individually. And remember, even if you pay off your balance in full every month, your utilization for that billing period will still be reported to the credit bureaus. So if you want to keep your score high, it’s important to keep your balances low.

Length of credit history

One factor that makes up your credit score is “length of credit history,” which is, simply put, how long you’ve been borrowing money. A longer credit history will boost your score while a shorter credit history will drag it down.

This is why it’s generally not a good idea to close old credit cards, even if you’re no longer using them. By closing the account, you shorten your credit history and lower your score.

New credit

A late payment on your credit report can negatively impact your credit score and stand out to future creditors. Depending on the severity of the late payment, it can stay on your report for up to seven years.

There are, however, some things you can do to minimize the damage. If you have a good credit history otherwise, you can try contacting the creditor and asking them to remove the late payment from your report. You can also work with a credit repair company to help improve your credit score.

In general, late payments will have a bigger impact if you have a lower credit score to begin with. If you have a high credit score, one late payment is not likely to cause a significant drop. However, if you have a low credit score, one late payment could cause your score to drop significantly. Either way, it’s important to pay your bills on time and keep an eye on your credit report so that you can catch any late payments before they do too much damage.

How to Remove a Late Payment From Your Credit Report

Wait it out

The best way to remove a late payment from your credit report is to wait for it to fall off naturally. Depending on the credit scoring model being used, late payments generally stay on your credit report for seven years from the date of the delinquency.

If you have a late payment on your credit report, there are a few things you can do to try to remove it before it falls off naturally:

-Pay the delinquent amount in full. This will usually prompt the credit reporting agency to remove the late payment from your report.
-Write a goodwill letter to the creditor explaining why you were late with your payment and ask them to remove the late payment from your report.
-If you have a good history with the creditor, you can try negotiating with them to have the late payment removed in exchange for keeping your account open and in good standing.

Dispute it

If you find a late payment on your credit report, you can dispute it with the credit bureau and with the company that reported the late payment.

The credit bureau will investigate the late payment and remove it from your report if they find that it is inaccurate or unfair.

The company that reported the late payment may also remove it if they find that it is inaccurate or if you have a good reason for why the payment was late.

Negotiate with your creditor

It may be possible to negotiate with your creditor to have the late payment removed from your credit report. This is most likely to be successful if you have a history of making payments on time, and the late payment was an isolated incident.

If you have a good relationship with your creditor, you can try calling them and explain the situation. You may be able to negotiate a one-time courtesy removal of the late payment.

If you are not able to negotiate a removal with your creditor, you can try writing a goodwill letter. In this letter, you explain why the late payment occurred and why it will not happen again. You can then ask the creditor to remove the late payment from your report as a gesture of goodwill.