Negative items on bureaus- to dispute or not dispute?

[teeder27]

Quick question for the group- more of a do I or don't I type question.  

I've been on the credit score train in my life before and am very conscious of how hard it is to fix it after something happens.  

With that being said, I had an awesome score for a long time and due to a now ex girlfriend, I had every card maxed out, which caused my score to drop like a rock.  I also have two accounts on my credit reports (Bank of America credit card and Infiniti Financial Services car lease) that each have two late payments showing- switched banks and didn't set up the auto pays like I thought I did, so they each have two 30 day lates showing.  

A few weeks ago, I consolidated all but ~11k of card balances into a fixed loan, which has caused my score to go up some.  Some of the paid in full cards aren't reported as such yet on the bureaus, so I haven't seen the full effect of the consolidation loan that I did as of yet.  

Once the remainder of the cards report to the bureaus, I should be back to ~720 or so on each bureau, which isn't where I was a few years ago, but love is blind and I didn't anticipate what happened to happen- my fault 100%- not blaming anyone for it.  

My question is that I've called BOA and Infiniti Financial Services to ask for courtesy removal of late payments and both tell me that the only way to get them removed is to dispute them.  

IF I were to dispute them (Infiniti Financial Services is closed as the lease matured in July of 2020.  Bank of America is paid in full, zero balance, still open.), what is the liklihood of the two lates from each account being removed, or will I ultimately just end up damaging my already damaged scores even more, and slow the recovery of them?  

I'm not necessarily a big fan of disputing things, but if it were to cause the 4 late payments to fall off, then I'd be in much better shape.  They are from 2018 and 2019.  

Looking for suggestions before I go and do something that I 100% regret and can't reverse. 

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Ficoproblems247]

Disputing legitimate items with the CRAs is not the correct way to go about getting them removed. I would suggest you search through posts on goodwill saturation techniques, which involve sending letters/emails to CEOs or EOs of the financial institutions you have incurred the missed payments with. I wish you luck in the process, as it can certainly be an uphill battle. 

[RobertEG]

There statement that the only way to get them removed is via a dispute is their way of saying they will only delete if you show that the lates were inaccurate.

In order to file a dispute, you must indicate what is considered to be inaccurate, and provide whatever support you might have.

They must then investigate the accuracy.

A dispute that asserts no inaccuracy can be dismissed without investigation as being "frivolous or irrelevant."

It appears that the lates are accurate,and thus it does not appear as if you have a legitimate basis for dispute of their accuracy.