are late payments from 2002 still hurting my credit?

[Anonymous]

I used to have a USAA card that I got back in 1995. It was my first one and I used it less than responsibly. It has been paid off since mid-2004, but all three reports show instances of 30, 60, and 90+ days late. The earliest 30 days late occurrence that shows up in May 2002. The last late payment shows up as June 2004 (around the time I finally paid it all off).

Almost 7 years have passed since the first late payment that shows up on this card, and almost 5 since the last one. Here are some questions I have:

• Are these likely hurting my score?
• Can I do something about them?
• If I can do something about them, will my score increase?
• If I do nothing, will they eventually drop off and my score will increase anyway? 

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Tuscani]

If a late is on your report.. it is hurting your score.. given it is so old, I doubt the impact is much.

Have you tried GW?

[haulingthescoreup]

The 90-day late puts you in a major derogatory score bucket, along with those with charge-offs, collections, and 120-day lates. The others aren't counting all that much at this point, but of course, they certainly don't help you.

And all it takes is one 90-day. So if you have several, you might not see much happen with your scores as the others fall off. It's when that last one goes that you will see results, assuming that you don't have the same problem on other accounts.