Should I attempt to change late payments to a default?

nosjwplsthx

I've recently found an account in arrears on my credit report. It shows that my 2nd month of late payment was June 2015 which remained until it hit February 2016 where it incremented to three months of late payments, hitting five months of late payments by April 2016 and reporting five months of late payment every month since then. It does not appear to have defaulted, it's just giving me a late payment mark every month.

I've now settled this account, so I'm waiting for my credit report to update. However, I'm now wondering what the best way to manage this is.

Firstly, do the late payments stack? So do the 24 or so monthly late payments accumulate, or is it just counted as 1 late payment?

If it's counted as 1 late payment, I'm assuming that unlike a default, the date of the last late payment is significant rather than the first?

If this assumption is correct, this leaves me with a choice. Do I pursue a default, which would leave a 3 year old default on my account, or do I just consider this a lucky oversight and be happy with a recent late payment on my account?

I suppose this all boils down to one question - what's preferable, a 3+ year old default that will remain for the next 3 years, or a 1 month old late payment that will remain for the next 6 years?

Any opinions either way?

sourcrates

In this case i would let sleeping dogs lye, the further back in time negative information is, the less effect it will have on you.

Depending on what type of credit you may wish to apply for, lenders only look at either 6 months/one year or two year history, longer for a mortgage obviously, it will heal itself eventually, and it will only matter if you want to apply for a credit product anyway.