Late payments are not created equal; a 30 or 60 day late pay will not damage your score much, and can often be removed. However a 90 day or 120 day late pay will cause significant damage to your score.
You can remove a 30 or 60 day late pay by contacting the lender directly and asking them to erase it. Often they will do this as a gesture of good will and to keep your business.
A phone call and a letter including the reason is the most effective method. Also be respectful and nice to them because they do not have to remove this mark.
A 90 or 120 day late pay will be more difficult to remove. We still suggest contacting the lender, if your account is still open, and ask them to remove the mark.
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 item will be on your report for a maximum of seven years. Additionally your account will be charged off after 180 days of delinquency.
A lender can remove this mark because they report monthly to the bureaus and can choose what to report to them. Thus if they do not report your late payment the next month then it will not be on your credit history.
You will find it very difficult to have the lender erase this mark if your account is not up to date. Additionally there is information that claims negative items on your credit must stay there for seven years.
This is not true; any item can be removed at any point in time, the maximum amount of time an item can remain on your report is seven years. There are a few exceptions such as a bankruptcy. The Fair Credit Reporting Act clearly says that the maximum amount of time is seven years. There is no minimum amount of time an item must stay on your report and can thus be removed at any time.
In sum the first step is contacting the lender, if you still have the account, and then if that is unsuccessful dispute it directly with the bureaus.
