Late payments are probably one of the worst things that you can have on your credit report.  When you make a late payment, your credit score is going to most likely be impacted.  What happens if you have a late payment on your credit report?  Is there anything you can do about it?  Yes, there are ways to get rid of these late payments, and let me show you how.

#1 – Get copies of your credit report

The first thing that you want to do is get a copy of your credit report.  A great place to start is AnnualCreditReport.  This is 100% free, and you can get a report for free each, and every year.  When you get your report, you will want to look it over to see what late payments you have, and you will want to write these down.

#2 – Talk with the creditor directly

Let’s say that you have 5 late payments, all coming from 5 different creditors.  What you want to do is call them up directly, and explain your situation.  If it’s only happened once, there’s a good chance that they will take this off your report.  If it’s happened constantly over the past year or so, your chances of having it taken off is fairly slim.  This step is generally the best step to take in order to remove it 100%.

TIP: Consider automatic payments.  With the technology like it is today, there’s no reason to miss a payment!  Set up automatic bill pay, and make sure that your creditors get the money that they need.

#3 – Dispute it

Most of the times, late payments are justified, but if you don’t think it should be there, you will want to contact the creditor, and credit bureaus.  Let them know your situation, and if they creditor doesn’t respond within 30 days, it will legally be removed.

As long as you’re not late with your payments, you don’t have to worry about this.  Just make sure that you watch your payments, and as long as your debt is low, and your payments are on time, you have nothing to worry about.