How Can I Remove Late Payments From My Credit Report?

For many people it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet all of their financial obligations. Each month that a consumer is late on a bill, the creditor reports this information to the credit reporting agencies. The credit reporting agencies then take this information and include it on your credit report. When a lender requests a copy of your credit report, all of your late payment entries will be reported for the lender to view.

Payments received after the due date are considered late, regardless of “how late” they may have been. If your payment was received the day after the due date or 30 days following the due date, it is still late. Most creditors however will not report a late payment until it is actually 30 days past the due date. But, if your payment is past the due date, you will probably find yourself with a hefty late payment penalty.

To begin the process of removing late penalties from your credit report, you will need to request a copy of your credit report. This is easily done by getting in touch with one of the three major credit reporting agencies – TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. You have the right to obtain one free copy of your credit report from these credit reporting agencies every twelve months.

Although the same kinds of information are reported on credit reports, the layout may be somewhat different. As you review your credit report, it should be fairly simple to determine how the credit reporting agency has reported late payments. In addition, the number of late payments you have made within a specific time period should also be shown on your credit report.

Although consumers understand that making late payments is not a good thing, they normally don’t understand the far-reaching consequences. Payment punctuality can count for over 30% of your total credit score. Because of this, late payments can severely affect credit applications which you submit to a lender.

The first thing you can try in order to remove late payments from your credit report is to contact the creditor directly and ask that it remove the late payments. This is often successful, however, if you habitually make late payments, it may be less likely.

If your creditor is unwilling to remove the late payments, you should contact the credit reporting agency by mail and request that they remove the late payments. Your letter should include copies of any supporting documentation that you have which corroborates your claim. You should always retain copies of any correspondence to or from the credit reporting agency. The credit reporting bureau has 30 days to verify your claim. If it cannot verify your claim within 30 days, it must remove the late payment from your credit report.

If at all possible, it is smart to keep this from happening in the first place. If you know you will be unable to make a payment on time, make a call to your creditor and explain your situation. It is often the case that creditors are more than happy to help you out by arranging a payment plan.

Did you know that late payments can be shown on your credit report for up to seven years? It’s true! This, of course, can severely damage your credit score and can cause you to be denied credit. Try to avoid late payments on your credit report by working with your creditor if you feel you will be late. You will be happy you did!

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Will a Judgment Affect Me Adversely?

If you have a debt which is subsequently sent to collections, you will drastically damage your credit score. Your credit score will be damaged even more significantly if your creditor decides to seek a judgment.

If you are served with a Notice to Appear in court with regard to an unpaid debt, your creditor is through trying to work with you to collect the debt. After receipt of the Notice, you will have 30 days to object to the filing. If you can prove that the debt is invalid, you can have the case dismissed.

Some creditors may threaten to file a law suit but are not serious. However, going to court will be the kiss of death for your credit score and, therefore, should be avoided at all costs.

An “unpaid” judgment will be shown on your credit report for 10-12 years. At the end of this 10-12 year period, if the judgment remains unpaid, it can be renewed. A paid judgment can be shown on your credit report for up to 7 years from the date paid.

You should make an effort to contact your creditor to negotiate a settlement, provided the debt is valid, you would prefer this route to letting a judge decide your fate, and the debt is still within the statute of limitations (check your state’s statute of limitations laws). Be sure to check your state’s statute of limitations laws prior to doing this. The reason for this is that if your debt is outside of the statute of limitations, you no longer have a legal obligation to pay the debt and offering to pay may start the clock ticking again for payment purposes.

If the court issues an official court order for payment of the debt, your credit score will suffer drastically. This negative mark will not show up on your credit report if you contact your creditor and negotiate a settlement prior to the entry of judgment.

Offering to negotiate a settlement is the best solution for all parties. Typically, creditors do not want to go to court and will accept a portion of the amount owed just to bring the matter to a close. If you do not have a lump sum to offer as payment, you can always attempt to negotiate a payment plan. If your creditor is not “in the mood” to consider any offers, you might think about calling the lawyer handling the case for your creditor.

Your credit report will show the debt as “legally void” if the judgment is dismissed. This is much less damaging than a “paid judgment,” which can be shown on your credit report for seven years from the date paid.

The best outcome would be to negotiate a full deletion of all negative information. If you are successful in negotiating this, make sure you get the agreement in writing and that you obtain the signatures of both parties. Keep in mind that once the court becomes involved, your chances of negotiating a settlement are next to none.

An experienced credit attorney might be a good idea. You may, in the long run, save some money and lessen the damage to your credit score by employing a seasoned consumer credit attorney.

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How To Get Free Credit Report

Money management rarely comes naturally. There are a plethora of unregulated offers out there, competing for your dollars, and it can be hard to resist the temptation to borrow more than you can afford. It’s so easy to say, “Well, I’ll have more money in a few weeks or next month.” If money management skills haven’t been passed down to you from your parents or taught to you in school, then it may be difficult to navigate the complicated matrix of finances. Luckily, there are free credit repair resources to help you fix past mistakes, repair your credit and start borrowing responsibly.

The best part about finding a third party credit counselor to tackle your credit repair is that you won’t feel so alone. It can be overwhelming, frustrating and embarrassing to find yourself knee-deep in debt. Sure, you could repair your credit on your own by reading a few books, buying software, calling and negotiating with creditors, or making an organized checklist of priorities. However, you may prefer the “we’re-in-this-together” feeling of working one-on-one with a debt reduction professional who can ensure you’re doing your best to pay off old debts and wipe the slate clean with a newer, positive payment history.

The first step toward credit repair is getting your free online credit score. Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are legally entitled to one free report each year from each of the three main credit bureaus, which are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion). On your credit report, you’ll see whether or not you have a high or low credit score, as well as all the outstanding debts you owe, people who have checked your credit report, loans you’re paying off and other financial information that is readily visible to loan officers. It is important that you check this report each year to make sure all of your financial records are up-to-date. Any past late payments, collection accounts or blemishes will be on your record for seven years, but your account status should be updated and your score should reflect your recent activity. It’s not unusual to find errors or dated information, so keeping your records accurate is one way to repair bad credit.

Sometimes, finding free credit repair involves just knowing where to look. Non-profit counseling services are often offered locally by universities, military bases, law offices, credit unions, banks and housing organizations. Two of the housing organizations that offer free financial counseling include Neighborhood Housing Services at www.nw.org and HUD at www.hud.gov. Their goal is to help people with bad credit debt become eligible for affordable home ownership again. There are state programs that can help if you’re having trouble paying your heating or water bills, so you can get ahead and prevent further damage to your credit report. You may feel alone and drowning in debt, so finding free assistance can be a huge relief.

Finding quality free credit repair may not be simple, but there are many resources for you to turn to, listed at www.cccservices.com. At the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies (AICCCA), you can gain access to a list of quality credit counseling companies. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling is a nonprofit company that helps consumers maintain financial stability. You can avoid credit repair scams by going through these organizations, checking companies through the Better Business Bureau and not paying large upfront fees to accomplish your goals.

If you want to read more articles about credit repair tips, please feel free to visit our credit repair site.

Stay Positive When Repairing Credit

Restoring your credit can be an emotionally draining process even to the strongest individuals. This is why it is crucial that you maintain an up-beat attitude during the process so that you can reach all of your goals. Ultimately, the more you stay focused and positive, the easier you will be able to achieve your goal to increase your credit score.

You will definitely get maximum results when you begin with the end in sight. Imagine yourself with a higher credit score and imagine what that higher score means to you and what you will be able to do with it for you and your family. Also, do not try and take shortcuts throughout the process. Map out a plan and make absolutely sure that you stick to that plan until you get the results you were always hoping for.

Always keep in mind that you will be getting calls and emails from creditors as well as many letter demanding that you send payment. The last thing that any one wants is to get home and see yet another letter demanding a payment or having to listen to yet another message left on the answering machine from a collector.

Handle every one of the letters and phone calls and messages as you would according to your plan you have set for yourself. Considering everyone’s plans will be different, there is no particular way that one needs to deal with these conditions. Some people may want to improve their credit through the use of a credit counselor. Under these circumstances you would not be contacting your creditors directly, but through your chosen credit counselor.

Looking forward to the end will help you stay on top of things and stay positive. Anticipate that you are going to receive calls from creditors and agencies and also anticipate that you will receive letters demanding payment. Anticipate that much of these calls are going to be aggressive in nature and not pleasant. By doing so, you are preparing yourself to stay neutral and emotionally calm when these calls and other things arrive.

Remaining positive during this credit restoration process is going to help you significantly to reach your goals. It is going to push you and empower you to do the necessary things that are required to get a good credit score, one that you deserve.

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Credit score secrets REVEALED

Your credit score is the most important number in your life. How much you pay for car and health insurance, car payments, your rent and mortgage payments, house utilities, and even whether you get hired for a job or not, are ALL based on your credit profile and credit score.

PAYMENT HISTORY is the largest aspect of your credit score accounting for 35% of your overall score. This aspect of your total score calculation is based on your over all payment history with your creditors. Late payments, defaulted accounts, and all other NEGATIVE information on your credit report have the greatest effect. The more paid-as-agreed accounts you have and the less negative accounts, the higher the credit score.

The PERCENTAGE of HIGH CREDIT USED is the second most important factor in the entirety of your credit score and accounts for a total of 30% of your overall score. This part of your score is based on the amount of money you owe on your credit accounts related to your high credit limits on those individual accounts. Your scores will be higher if you owe less than 30% of the high credit limit AND, your scores will be much lower if you carry HIGH credit card balances.

Your time in the credit bureau or LENGTH of CREDIT HISTORY accounts for 15% of your credit score. The longer you have had credit accounts for, the higher your credit score will be. As you have more accounts throughout your life time and your credit history grows, your credit scores will naturally increase due to this factor.

How fast you ACCUMULATE NEW DEBT accounts for 10% of your total credit score. This aspect of your credit score is composed of how much new debt you are applying for. It considers how many requests you have for new credit within a 12 month time period. If you have a lot of inquiries in a short period of time, your scores will be impacted.

A total of 10% of your credit score takes into account the “mix” of credit items you have on your report. This part of your credit score is affected by what kinds of accounts you have and how many of each. The bureaus will score you higher if you have an open mortgage, 3 credit cards, 1 auto loan, and a small amount of other open accounts. Any, “unhealthy” account mixes lower your scores such as having too many open mortgages or credit cards.

To obtain your highest credit score make sure you pay your accounts on time, do not keep high balances in relation to your limits on your open accounts, keep a very healthy mix of credit accounts open, and do not apply for too many new credit items in a short period of time.

If you follow the steps in this brief article you will be on your way to an excellent credit score in no time at all. If you have credit problems along the way, give us a call or visit us on line as we are experts in fixing credit issues and enforcing consumer credit rights.

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Top 5 Debt Elimination Tips to Become Debt Free

It is unfortunate that in today’s economy, debt rules all. From the deepest parts of our wallets, we have charged ourselves to the point of no return. The commercials and ads promising a better car, newer home and more of this and that are all based on lines of credit and bank loans. Our children have been raised in this economy where paying for something means a monthly payment and a low or high interest rate; this is why debt elimination is needed. With debt comes the need for the debt elimination and the strive to become debt free.

Happiness, less stress and more money are all waiting for the person who can choose debt elimination and live debt free. A debt free lifestyle and a debt elimination lifestyle is one that is marked by owning more things than you owe on. Moving from carrying large amounts of debt to being a debt free citizen is as simple as practicing these five debt elimination tips.

Pay Cash ? This step may seem like a given but becoming debt free with debt elimination is about eliminating the creation of new debt which a lot of people have trouble with. New debt free choices can create a more sound debt elimination path in life. It is often hard to accept the fact that we can not have everything we want and even though we can afford the monthly payment, that is still debt. Free yourself from this debt by buying only with cash; the savior of debt elimination.

Lose the Credit Cards ? Those controlling credit cards can go out the door from the first day you choose to be debt free. Life in the debt elimination mode does not mean charging less money no a card, it means paying for everything and charging nothing. The only way to ensure the debt free lifestyle and eliminate debt is to remove the lure of the credit.

Never Pay Just the Minimum ? The minimum payment on a credit card will often leave you in debt longer as opposed to creating a debt free life. The debt elimination of credit card money owed means paying off those balances. The minimum payment is not there for a debt free person, it is there for a person that does not mind making monthly payments for a long time to pay off a balance. Debt free means zero balance and that is going to take higher payments and more frequent payments and debt elimination.

Bad Monthly Payments ? Our monthly payments mind set is what gets more and more people into trouble with debt elimination. As soon as one bill is paid off, there is another monthly payment waiting to claim that money. Debt free means no debt and no monthly payments.

Do Not File Bankruptcy ? Businesses who are going under file bankruptcy, not the person who wants to be debt free. Eliminating debt for good requires learning how to live day to day in a cash only world. This can not happen if the debt free nature of out lives is given to us.

There was a time in life when debt free was the only way to live. Since then, the world has been taken over by the interest rate. Just as we learned to live outside of our means, we can learn to eliminate debt ad live debt free. A debt free lifestyle and debt elimination is there for the taking, we just have to want to be debt free.