The Better Credit Blog

Dear Ryan,

I am attempting to negotiate payment in full of a charge-off with WaMu in exchange for removing the tradeline from my credit report. I wrote a letter similar to the one  you’ve made available on this site (thank you!) and received a response that says WaMu’s records are correct and if I have issues with my credit report I should take it up with the three credit reporting agencies. 

I’m not sure what to make of this. My thought was to send another letter thanking them for the information but informing them they missed the point (very politely and graciously, of course) and restating my proposal. 

In closing the letter I wrote “upon receiving your written agreement, I will immediately begin payments… ” but their letter was not an agreement and didn’t address my proposal. So if I send another letter, and include your closer of “your written response will serve as agreement,” will I have to immediately begin payment upon a written response of any kind? 

What are your thoughts? Should I send another letter? Or should I start making payments as I proposed? 

Thanks a lot for making your stories and resources available.

regards, 
[name removed]

Don’t start making any payments until you get something in writing from them honoring your proposal. How old is the charge off? If it’s a fairly new charge off (within 5 years), you’re going to have a real difficult time getting them to remove it from your credit report. Your best bet (perhaps your only chance) is to offer to pay the balance off in FULL –one payment.

Hope this helps,
Ryan

I sent 3 of my creditors goodwill letters about 2 months ago. How long does it take for a response? And if nothing happens, what should be my next step?
Thanks 
Please help.

Are these accounts paid in full? If not, offer them a settlement in exchange for complete removal from your credit report. Get everything in writing. If they are late payments, read my post on how to get a late payment removed. I would give it another two weeks as well.

-Ryan

Dear Ryan
I have 2 paid off installment accounts that have past due in late 2007. should i try to remove those 2 and how do i go about it? or should i leave them on the report.
Thanks for your time and help
-name removed

Hi name removed -
Assuming these accounts have an overall good payment history, I would try to remove the late payments on both accounts by sending the original creditor a “goodwill” letter kindly asking them to remove the late payments. Goodwill letters are highly specific to your individual situation, but I suggest taking a look at my sample goodwill letter.

Also, read this article I wrote a few months back on the same subject.

Best,
Ryan

Well, I messed up last month and accidentally forgot to pay one of my credit cards. It was reported on my credit and I saw a 30 point drop! Yes, late payments can be a very big deal, and they weigh significantly in your overall credit score calculation. Get your free credit score here.

Although this has happened to me before, it was several years ago (before I really paid much attention to my credit score, or even knew I could get it removed). I am sure many of my readers have made the same mistake, so I’d like to show you 3 ways to get a late payment removed from your credit report. Just in case you’re wondering, I was able to get this late payment entry removed from my credit report by mailing the original creditor this goodwill letter.

In my experience, as long as you don’t have several late payments on the same account, it’s really not that difficult to get them removed. Here are three methods you can use to get them removed.

1. Request a Goodwill Adjustment from the original creditor to remove the late payment

The idea is simple and it works incredible well. Many times creditors are happy to grant “goodwill adjustments” if your previous payment history is relatively good and you have established a good relationship with the creditor. This is probably the easiest and surest way to get a late payment removed from your credit report. I wrote a whole article describing how to do this. You can also use this sample goodwill letter I created

2. Negotiate removal by offering to sign up for automatic payments.

I have never actually tried this method myself, but from what I understand creditors frequently offer to remove late payment entries if you, in exchange, agree to sign up for automatic payments. I really like this idea because it works out well for both parties: the creditor can ensure future payments will be made on time, and you don’t have to ever worry about missing another payment. I would love to hear from those of you who have succeeded with this method!

3. Dispute the late payment as inaccurate

Sometimes creditors have a difficult time verifying the exact details of your account history. Therefore, if you dispute the late payment and they are unable (or simply don’t bother) to verify it, the negative entry will be removed.

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