Is it worth disputing late payments from 2003 on an account that is paid off?

I have paid off an account in late 2005 but I had some late payments that were more than 90 days late in late 2003. Is it worth going back at this point to dispute those? Unfortunately, being young I wasn't the wisest with financial record keeping so I don't really have a way of tracking those to see if I did pay them or not and if they were missed, it would not have been intentional. My credit is between 610-650 (depending on the bureau) and I am hoping to get it to about 700 by next year. I have not had any late payments since 2003 and I am working hard at increasing the available credit ratio.

Is it worth disputing late payments from 2003 on an account that is paid off?regal theater

I just bought a house. So yes go to experien (or wherever) and dispute your little heart away. They probably won't respond. If they don't respond - you win.

I had many things resolved this way and bumped my credit score by nearly 100 pts.

Good luck.

Is it worth disputing late payments from 2003 on an account that is paid off?performing art center opera theater

Not worth it. Try not to get into that situation again.
I would say yes but only if you have proof... ie checks or images of the checks ( they should have an imprint on the back stating when they were cashed by said company..) otherwise it would just be your word against theirs...
Definately dispute it. They have to reply to the credit bureau's dispute or remove it from your record within a certain number of days. What do you have to lose? The more adverse accounts that are removed the higher your score. Also time with current payments will add points so keep up on them. Those payments from 2003 will be on record until 2009 if they are not removed.
One problem with disputing lates on a 'closed' account is running the risk of losing the whole tradeline - history and all.

You would have to look over your reports and see if you want to take the risk of losing that account.

If you have a lot of great history with other accounts, losing that may not hurt to bad or for to long.

If you have a thin file it will take a lot longer for the scores to recover.
This is totally worth it. It takes lots of time and follow up, but if you can get it off your report do so.
If this is the only negative on your credit report, and you still are in the low 600's, then there must be something else wrong with your history.

You may want to consider buying your score from http://www.myfico.com and they will also send you a detailed explanation of what may be wrong with your credit score, and how to improve it.

In this case, it won't hurt to "play the game". Echo makes a good point, but if this item is hurting your score just by having a couple of late payments, I think having it deleted would help you.

The dispute process does not "correct" or change your report. Only the creditor can do that. But if they do not respond back to the credit agency investigation the report will be deleted.

You can also go one step further and demand that the creditor "validate" the debt and show their records are correct. Many times, once a debt has bee paid the files are put away. It's quite difficult and expensive for companies to dig out these records, and they just might say "the heck with it" and not respond.

See the link below for more on this, plus some sample letters.