Comments on: How long do late credit card payments impact your credit report?

By: Anjell

Anjell — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:40:30 +0000

1. Order your credit reports from the 3 bureaus
If you’re ordering for the first time, get your score (for a fee) from Equifax as their scoring matters most.

2. Make copies of your report and put the originals in a binder. On the photocopied reports use a highlighter and check for any incorrect, outdate, false, etc…info

3. Download a dispute letter(s) from the credit bureaus website and list anything that is wrong. Mail them to their office(s). They have 30 days to reply.

4. If they will not remove something that is not yours or too old (> 7 years) as them for a debt validation. This may take an additional 30 days.

5. Once the ‘baddies’ come off, take care not to let any of your other accounts fall into that predicament.

6. If you haven’t already make sure your existing accounts are current and paid on time ALWAYS.

7. Get a secured credit card with or for like $500-1000 or more if you can and use it sparingly. Charge like $50 on the card each month and pay it in FULL and on TIME. Make sure you do this for a minimum of 6 months so that you estabish a positive repayment history.

8. Problem with just letting them ‘fall off’ is that they may never. You may get sued before that…that’s where you suddenly get a summons to appear in court and a judgment for collection against you.
For the 2 collection items…pay them but get a ‘pay for delete’ from the collectin agency in WRITING…they’ll delete it after you pay and it will help your credit score

By: Rob T

Rob T — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:39:24 +0000

You can use credit repair agency to fix it - for example this one - - They can clean lots of such bad stuff from your credit report - and do it much faster than yourself, so your credit will go up fast.

By: bdancer222

bdancer222 — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:58:17 +0000

If these are closed accounts, it’s 7-1/2 years from the date of first deficiency. However, the older the item the less impact on the score. If these are still open accounts, 24 months of consistent, on time payments will improve her score. The longer the on time payment history the better the score.

By: Snake

Snake — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:42:29 +0000

Yes It will be there in your credit report for long time. Its always better dispute with credit bureau.
They have online dispute system where within minutes you can file your dispute and within 30 days your dispute will be addressed.

Try this and let us know

By: Jooch

Jooch — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:15:35 +0000

I just found out you can go into your credit report and dispute hits to your report. If it’s been 7 years and your wife hasn’t been contacted by any collectors then you might be able to get your free credit report and once you get it find those derogatory accounts and dispute their status. I’ve also learned you can delete previous addresses from your report so that just your current address shows. It’s all about stability with creditors so your report showing that you’ve moved around alot is a bad thing. Try it.

By: Rosita

Rosita — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:18:34 +0000

It’s 7 years from the time it happened. All it does is keep her fico score low. If she is never late again, only time can make her FICO go up.

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:32:48 +0000

After 12 months, their impact is diminished.

After 24 months, their impact will be negligible…so long as she has good credit everywhere else.