how to remove derogatory from my credit report?

[H03014898 1]

Hi,

 

 I have some family issues and need to travel back home country for four months. Yesterday i saw there is a derogatory mark on my credit report from national grid because i owe them 56 dollar. (there is a whole story why i forgot to pay).  i will clear their balance as of today. But how can i remove this derogatory mark. While i am still out of the country. 

 

will appreciate your response.

 

 

Thanks

 

[arken 4,197]

2 hours ago, H03014898 said:

Hi,

 

 I have some family issues and need to travel back home country for four months. Yesterday i saw there is a derogatory mark on my credit report from national grid because i owe them 56 dollar. (there is a whole story why i forgot to pay).  i will clear their balance as of today. But how can i remove this derogatory mark. While i am still out of the country. 

 

will appreciate your response.

 

 

Thanks

 

You cannot do anything about it, that’s why making on time payments is so important. That one usually remain for 7-10 years. What you can do is improve your credit score by making on time payments, keeping very low balance on your credit cards like that.

[Loren Y 2,755]

3 hours ago, H03014898 said:

Hi,

 

 I have some family issues and need to travel back home country for four months. Yesterday i saw there is a derogatory mark on my credit report from national grid because i owe them 56 dollar. (there is a whole story why i forgot to pay).  i will clear their balance as of today. But how can i remove this derogatory mark. While i am still out of the country. 

 

will appreciate your response.

 

 

Thanks

 

It depends on if it is National Grid you are dealing with, or if you are dealing with a collection agency operating on their behalf. If it is a collection agency there is not much you can do other than to pay the dept in full, and get a letter saying this debt was paid in full and account closed. It is all based on who put the mark on your credit report, and you should be able to tell that from your report, it will have the agency and the phone number for them. For a 56 dollar bill you can ask for them to remove it from your report, but if they will bother is another question. Just make sure they report to the credit agency in question that the bill was paid in full and account closed that way it won't effect your credit score much at all. If it has only been a few months, and you are dealing with the original debtor, sometimes you can convince them to update it to show paid and closed at account holders request, then it has no effect on your report. For something this small the best thing to do whoever you are dealing with is to at the minimum get them to report to the credit agency that is was paid. 56.00 isn't going to effect your credit that much as long as it shows paid. This is why you want to make sure you get a letter from them showing the account closed and paid in full, because if they don't update the credit agency you paid in full, you can send a copy of the letter to the credit agency and request that they update the record for you, but you will need proof it was paid. The whole pain in this whole process is it takes 90 days roughly for any changes to show on your credit report most of the time. Best thing to do is pay the bill, make sure they send you the letter, and then check your report when you get back in 4 months to see how they reported it to the credit agency and go from there. Fixing and making changes to your report is overall pretty easy, it's just the time involved to see the changes reflect

[geowrian 22,337]

Contact whoever owns the debt now (in case it was sold off to a collector) and hope they are willing and capable of removing it ("goodwill adjustment") upon payment. For such a small amount and a simple explanation of forgetting it, they probably can do so.

The fact is they may not be able or willing to do so...credit reports provide a history, and there's no way to go back in time (yet!).

While it's only $56, the amount doesn't matter much with regards to the impact your credit score and history. Hopefully it won't impact it much.

[TBoneTX 45,497]

Thread is moved from the "Moving to the US" forum to the Tax & Finances forum -- topic is credit reports.