How to Clear a Delinquency

When you are unable to pay your credit card bills, or any other bills, your account goes into a delinquent state. Delinquency will lower your credit score and may affect your ability to obtain loans. If you do not clear a delinquency from your account within a specified time period set forth by the creditor, your account may be sent to a collection agency.

Instructions

1

Pay off your delinquent account(s). This is the first step in removing a delinquent account from your credit report. If you are unsure of the past-due amount, contact the customer service department of the company you owe. If you do not have the money to pay off the past-due amount in full, ask for a payment plan. Most companies are willing to work with customers who wish to pay off a debt. Lenders prefer to have the debtor pay off the owed amount without handing the account over to collections, as a collection agency only pays them a small percentage of the total debt owed.

2

Write a letter of goodwill to the lender, or creditor, requesting the company remove the delinquency from your credit report once the outstanding balance has been paid off. In the letter, explain the circumstances that caused you to become late on payments and that you have paid off your overdue balance. The lender may act upon this request and manually remove the delinquency from your credit report.

3

If your account is in collections, contact the collection agency to arrange a payment plan to pay off the delinquent amount in return for the delinquency being removed from your credit report. Most collection agencies will agree to this proposal, as long as you are able to pay off the account. In some cases, you may be able to negotiate the total amount owed down from the original balance.