How to Get Late Fees Removed From a Credit Report

According to The Motley Fool, a single 90-day late payment can cause ongoing damage to your credit score. In the eyes of some creditors, a three-month late payment is akin to a tax lien, bankruptcy or a repossession. Simply bringing your account current by paying the outstanding balance will not remove the negative late fee or the red flags it leaves behind. Once you cross the 90-day-late payment mark, credit bureaus assume you may cross that line again. However, you can negotiate with your creditors to remove late fees from your credit report to raise your credit score.

Instructions

1

Contact your creditor and request a goodwill removal of the late fee. If you can show you experienced a period of financial hardship, but have a history of on-time payments prior to your late payment, some companies will remove late fees from your credit report. Gather financial documents such as income statements and a list of your expenses to illustrate that you went through a temporary period of financial hardship. If a medical emergency and subsequent hospital bills led to your late payment, creditors are more likely to honor the request based on your hardship.

2

Leverage your financial standing to negotiate the removal of late fees from your credit report. If you have a good credit score -- which, according to the Experian website, is a score of 700 or higher -- Entrepreneur writer Tanisha A. Sykes suggests you tell the company you will pay off the balance and close the account if late fees are not removed. Most companies won't risk losing a good customer, so it would rather remove the late fee than risk the chance of losing your business. Additionally, negotiate removal by signing up for automatic payments. Automatic payments not only help the company, but they ensure you won't miss any future payments.

3

Dispute the late payment entry with the major credit bureaus if the item is inaccurate. Claiming that an accurate entry is inaccurate can be considered fraud, but if you find any inaccuracies regarding the late payment reporting, you can dispute it for removal, according to the Federal Trade Commission's Facts for Consumers. Include with your dispute original copies of any documents that support your claim. Even simple inaccuracies, such as a wrong date or an inaccurate amount, are grounds for dispute. Creditors often have a difficult time verifying precise details of account histories, and if they are unable to verify the validity of the disputed item within 30 days, the negative entry must be removed. Check for inaccuracies by obtaining your credit report. You can obtain a free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit reporting bureaus -- Experian, TransUnion and Equifax -- once each year through AnnualCreditReport.com.