I was led to believe that late pays come off after 2 years. My experian report says that I was +30 days late on an account over 3 years ago. Is this right or was I miss informed. Thanks in advance, Rock
Unfortunately, late pays will be reported for seven years. If you believe they are incorrect, I would dispute them with the bureaus. I did this & was very successful.
If there is any "good" side to this, it is that the older a late pay is, the less it impacts your credit score, especially if it is an isolated incident, instead of a pattern of lates. While it does decrease in significance over time, it still makes it hard to get credit with the "premier" line players, such as NextCard, Chase, etc. For a mortgage, generally as long as it is 2 years or older (and, again, not part of a larger pattern), the lender doesn't pay much attention to it....other than how it directly affects your FICO score.