Write a late payment letter

A credit enhancement letter won’t always help you restore a flawless credit rating, but writing and mailing your own explanation of a late payment can go a long way toward raising your credit score by eliminating negative items on your credit report.

You can be sure that late payments are the worst thing you can do to negatively affect your credit history. Making a credit card payment 30 days late is the fastest way to lower your FICO credit score, which is the most important thing.

FICO, which refers to Fair Isacc Co., the company that developed the credit scoring model used by most lenders and credit card companies today when deciding whether and how much credit to issue on your behalf.

What constitutes a good credit score?

The FICO scoring system ranks the following items in your credit history based on these percentages, according to MyFICO.com:

1. Your previous payment history: 35%
2. Amounts you owe on credit cards, loans, etc. – 30%
3. Length of your credit history: 15%
4. New credit that you have applied for, used – 10%
5. Types of credit used: 10%

As you can see from the list above, two-thirds of your FICO credit score will be based on (1) your on-time payments you have made in the past, plus (2) the total amount of debt you have accumulated credit cards, credit cards, monthly consumption, department store credit cards and the like.

You can control punctual payments. So it’s clear that if you want to fix your bad credit, your best bet is to learn how to keep your payment history accurate, as well as strive to find new ways to keep debt levels down.

The good news: bad credit doesn’t have to last forever! By taking proactive steps today, you can fix your credit report and score later. This article will focus on the first way to dispute negative credit by writing letters to explain late payments on your credit accounts.

How to start writing credit repair letters:

Here are some simple steps to take when writing your own late payment explanation letter:

• Be direct and honest when writing a letter to dispute a late payment.
• If you know you were late, say so and ask for forgiveness. Remind them that you are a good past customer and that you intend to be a better customer in the future.
• If you dispute the accuracy of the late payment, please include a copy of your online payment statement. Just be sure to copy these payments to your computer if you need to test an online payment in the future or you won’t have any proof to get a satisfactory response to your request.
• Send your letter as soon as possible after the payment is late. If you procrastinate and wait for the creditor to contact you, you will lose a lot of negotiating space in your argument. By proactively admitting your mistake and asking for forgiveness, you have a better chance of preventing negative items from showing up on your credit report.

Free sample of late payment letter

We’ve added a link to a great late payment explanation letter provided by Buzzle.com, showing you how to get started writing your own.

Organizing your own unique words and thoughts to write your personalized explanation of a late payment can help cure your bad credit rating by removing negative items from your credit report with the stroke of a pen and for just the price of a postage stamp. The cost is minimal; the results can be substantial. Make the effort now to write a late payment explanation letter to correct your credit report today.