I have a 30 day late car payment from a few years ago. I don’t even remember being late.
It was from a car I financed in 94’, and it shows me as being late. :mad: I don’t even own that car anymore. What can I do, if anything?
Also, on my “good” credit section, I have a lot of old cards (a few yrs old) that were never late, closed accounts. Why are they still there? Isn’t it better for it to be off my report then to be on as good?
I don’t think you’ll have any problem with just one “over 30 days” delinquency. If you’re applying for a job that does a financial check, keep your letter of dispute handy if that makes you feel comfortable. There’s a lot of info. on the Net by companies like Equifax that discuss credit reports.
One thirty day late payment from a few years ago probably isn’t doing too much damage to your credit score. If the dispute doesn’t work, there isn’t anything else you can do, since it’s a legit item on your report.
Generally, anything in the good section you want to keep in the good section for as long as possible. If they’re closed accounts, they can’t be hurting you in terms of balance to limit ratio. Having them there helps establish your history of good payments. Age of accounts is one of the factors used in calculating your credit score. If they weren’t there, and the only things showing up were recently opened accounts with balances, it’d actually be a bad thing for your score.
You can write that lender a letter and ask them very nicely to correct the report. It will take anywhere from 60-90 days to update.
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Once it’s on the report and it’s a valid account, it’s there for good. The bureaus will only remove errors. (an account from a spouse showing under you by accident or fraud) As cstamets stated, the fact you paid the accounts in a timely manner and in full shows you can handle credit.
Interesting tidbit:
If you dispute the accuracy of a paid loan on Equifax or Experian, they’ll likely investigate and update to the appropriate notation based on what they received from the reporting creditor. If the reporting creditor fails to answer (which the reporting creditor is of course under no legal obligation to do) then they’ll likely just go ahead and believe you.
HOWEVER, if TransUnion is repoting the account, there seems to be a good chance that they’ll simply delete the entire account without attempting to verify if you dispute and the creditor doesn’t respond.
That could do you more harm than good, esp. if that’s your only automobile loan on record. 30-day lates aren’t good, but based on my conversations with auto finance people, your 60-day lates are what bother them. Until 60 days, you aren’t a “problem” and there’s no thought of default. After 60 days, they have to start worrying about repossessing it, etc etc.
Bad credit is sometimes better than no credit. Keep records of your current reports, and if they delete the entire account because of this dispute of yours, be prepared to raise the issue with the credit reporting agency in question. You may have to threaten to sue to get the account reinserted.
I just did a FICO inquiry on my credit. The following was included in the packet.
The rules regarding how long Equifax keeps information on credit accounts are as follows:
Credit Accounts:
Accounts paid as agreed remain for up to 10 years.
Accounts not paid as agreed remain for 7 years.
Collection Accounts:
Remain for 7 years.
The time periods listed above are measured from the date in your credit file shown in the “date of last activity” field accompanying the particular credit or collection account.
Courthouse Records:
Remain for 7 years from the date filed except:
Bankruptcy - Chapters 7 and 11: remain 10 years from date filed.
Bankruptcy - Chapter 13 non-dismissed or non-discharged remains 10 years from the date filed.
Unpaid tax liens remain indefinitely.
Paid tax liens remain for up to 7 years from the date released.
New York State Residents Only: Satisfied judgments remain 5 years from the date filed; paid collections remain 5 years from the date of last activity.
California State Residents Only: All tax liens remain 7 years from the date filed.
Do you know what your overall score is on your credit report? I recently refinanced my mortgage, and was told that any score above 600 is excellent credit. (I scored 700). So if you have a high score, that delinquent payment back in 1994 should not really matter.
FICO scores range between 300 and 850
The first number on the scale they show you is 500. Anything below that, forget about it. Mid range on the scale is 725. There and above and you are doing OK. A word of caution when you request a FICO. They will list your very last balance on a particular credit card, so if you are looking for a personal loan or mortgage, don’t be buying a big screen TV a month before your loan request, kabish? Also don’t be fooled into thinking that your Sears or Walmart or any card that can only be used at a particular store, isn’t a bank credit card just like Mastercard or Visa, because it is.
