How to Remove Paid-Off Child Support From Your Credit Report

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Unpaid child support payments are included on your credit reports and remain there for up to seven years, having a negative impact on your credit score.

If you’ve paid off your entire child support obligation and the account still appears as delinquent on your credit report, you can file a dispute with the credit bureaus to potentially have it updated. Here’s what you need to know.

Key takeaways

The federal government requires agencies to give credit bureaus information on overdue child support payments once they reach $1,000, and some states will report smaller amounts as well.
Before delinquent child support is reported to the big three credit bureaus, states are required to send you a formal notice of the debt, which gives you a certain amount of time to dispute the information.
If late child support payments have already been reported, they can remain on your credit reports for up to seven years, but paying past-due amounts can help you get back on track.

1. Review your credit reports

First and foremost, you’ll need to order copies of your credit reports from each of the three credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — to understand exactly what you’re dealing with. You can request free copies of your credit reports once per week through AnnualCreditReport.com. To access your reports, be prepared to answer questions only you would know the answer to, such as the amount of your last mortgage payment.

If unpaid child support is included on your credit report, it will typically be listed as a collection account. You’ll find this information under the “collections” or “account information” section of your report.

2. Get proof that the account was paid off

Child support agencies collect and track your payments, but they sometimes fail to report those payments properly. Before you contact the three major bureaus, get in touch with the child support collections agency you’ve been paying to ensure that the account is paid off and confirm that they have notified the credit bureaus.

Keep in mind that it sometimes takes a month or two for your credit reports to update, so it’s possible that the information has been reported and you just need to wait for it to be reflected on your reports.

However, if it’s been a few months since you paid off your child support and it’s still listed as delinquent on your credit report, you’ll need to start gathering information to support your dispute. If you haven’t been keeping receipts of your payments, you can request a report from your child support enforcement agency showing what you’ve paid.

3. File a dispute with the credit bureaus

Once you have documents to support your case, you can submit a dispute with the credit reporting agencies. You’ll need to notify all three credit bureaus of the issue and contest it with them individually, which you can do online, over the phone or by mail.

When disputing information, you should communicate with the credit bureaus in writing whenever possible so you can keep records of those communications. When providing documentation to the credit bureaus, always send copies rather than originals.

In most cases, these credit reporting agencies will have 30 days to investigate your claim, after which you’ll receive a written statement of the results. If the dispute resulted in changes to your credit report, you’ll receive a free updated copy.

What information can you dispute?

You can dispute information on your credit report only if it is inaccurate. For example, if you have never missed a child support payment but your credit report states that you have, that information can be disputed. You can also submit a dispute if your child support obligation is mistakenly sent to collections despite being paid in full.

Accurate information, including late payments and collection accounts, cannot be disputed even if you eventually pay off the debt. If you’ve recently paid your past-due child support and it is still listed as delinquent on your credit report, you might be able to have your credit file updated to show that the account has been paid in full. However, you won’t be able to remove the derogatory mark from your credit report entirely.

4. Confirm the change to your credit report

Once you’ve received a written answer from the credit bureau, check your credit report to confirm the change.

Remember that the outcome of your dispute depends on the type of information you’re trying to have updated or removed. If your child support was never delinquent and the information was reported in error, successfully disputing the account should result in the child support being fully removed from your credit reports.

However, if you filed a dispute because the account was once delinquent and has since been paid, the late payments can still show up on your credit report. Late payments remain on your credit report for up to seven years from the date of the original delinquency, but the account itself should now show up as paid in full.

5. Add a note to the entry on your credit report

If you aren’t able to get the late payment removed from your credit reports, you may want to consider adding a consumer statement to the entry to explain why you were delinquent on your child support obligation.

Adding a note gives you the opportunity to explain your circumstances to future creditors, who will see a record of late payments and delinquent accounts when you apply for loans, credit cards, mortgages and anything else that requires a credit check.

How does child support affect your credit score?

Depending on where you live, child support may appear on your credit report regardless of whether you pay on time. But in most cases, child support arrears — or child support that is past due — is more likely to be reported than child support that’s paid on time.

Once you miss a child support payment, that late payment can stay on your credit report for seven years. As with all debts, missed payments negatively affect your credit score and can leave you with bad credit consequences.

If you fall behind on your child support payments and you contact the child support agency before the issue is reported to the credit bureaus, you may be able to set up a payment plan for the debt, which can prevent child support from appearing on your credit report altogether.

What happens when you pay off a child support account?

As we’ve covered, paying off a late child support payment won’t remove the derogatory mark from your credit report. However, it can help improve your credit score, since the account should be updated on your reports as paid in full.

Your credit score is impacted more by recent activity than older activity. So if you’ve successfully paid off your debt, it’ll have a lesser impact on your score over time. To get an idea of where you stand, you can check your credit score for free with LendingTree Spring.

Improving your credit score

Two of the best things you can do to repair your credit are disputing inaccurate information and paying off delinquent accounts. Even if your credit history shows that you’ve missed child support payments in the past, paying off your child support account will show future lenders that you’ve turned things around and are financially responsible.

As you move forward, you can focus on improving your payment history, which is the factor that has the largest impact on your credit score. You should also continue to check your credit reports at least once a year to track your progress and keep an eye out for signs of fraud.

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