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 it’s possible to get them removed, under certain circumstances, and here you will learn when that is doable 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

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

This will record your explanation of the issue for potential creditors to take into account, 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 of the credit reference agencies are reporting the issue, and 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• Dispute the issue directly: If the recorded missed/late payment is simply outdated information, contact the credit reference agency that has it listed. Have proof that the matter has been resolved to hand. If the issue was the result of an error, you should go to the creditor who reported the problem and ask them to investigate.
• Monitor your reports going forward: You should keep tabs on your credit reports to check that the issue has been removed after you reported it. The free trials our affiliate partners offer last up to 30 days, so you will have the opportunity to do this.

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

How much will your credit score improve by?

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 was 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 are showing the issue. You can then contact them or the creditor in question to request its removal.