Removing Missed Payments From Your Credit Report

Missed and late payments are generally classed as two of the least severe forms of bad credit, but they can have a negative impact on your borrowing profile.

The good news is that they can be removed under certain circumstances. Here, you will learn when that is possible and how to make it happen.

Can you remove missed or late payments from your credit report?

This is only possible under the circumstances outlined below:

• If the debt has been settled and is more than six years old
• If the late/missed payment was recorded in error

Suppose neither of these scenarios applies, but you believe there are mitigating circumstances surrounding your missed/late payment. In that case, you can contact the credit reference agency displaying the issue and request a ‘notice of correction’ to be added to your file.

This will record your explanation of the issue for potential creditors to consider, but it is at their discretion whether the reason is satisfactory. Unexpected life events such as illness or redundancy may be accepted, but some lenders are more flexible than others.

How to remove missed/late payments

If the issue was settled and is more than six years old or was recorded in error, you can contest the missed/late payment by following these steps:

• Download your credit reports: You will need to see which credit reference agencies are reporting the issue. You can do this by visiting our credit reports hub, signing up for a free, cancel-anytime trial with our affiliate partners, and downloading your credit files through them.
• Dispute the issue directly: If the recorded missed/late payment is simply outdated information, contact the credit reference agency that lists it. Have proof that the matter has been resolved. If the issue resulted from an error, you should go to the creditor who reported the problem and ask them to investigate.
• Monitor your reports going forward: You should monitor your credit reports to check that the issue has been removed after you reported it.

The credit report provider we work with offers multi-agency reports comprising information from the UK’s main credit reference agencies – Equifax, Experian and Transunion – so you will get a complete and in-depth overview of your credit profile.

How much will your credit score improve?

A missed or late payment can impact your credit score by up to 80 points, although its effect will diminish over time. Multiple missed payments will, naturally, have a greater impact. There will be no sign of the issue after six years, provided it is fully resolved, and you can diminish its effect before this point by settling the debt in full.

Download your credit reports today

If you want to remove or dispute a missed/late payment from your credit record, the first step should be to visit our credit reports hub so you can download your credit files for free. Only by doing this can you identify which reference agencies show the issue. You can then contact them or the creditor requesting its removal.