Give yourself some credit

The Money Pros are standing by to take your questions.

Q. I have two questions regarding my credit profile.

1. I was behind on my mortgage for a year and finally I sold my house to pay off what I owed. How long will this show as a negative on my credit report?

2. I settled with my credit card companies two years ago and am now in good standing, owing $11,000 and paying it off on time. I am not using credit cards now.

I’m also retired. Do I have a chance to get my credit in good standing soon?

A. Delinquencies such as late payments and settlements can remain on credit for seven years from the delinquency date.

When a consumer is late on a mortgage, especially extremely late payments, it could drop scores by 100 points or more.

Usually it takes three to seven years to recover from this type of issue. The higher your score was before the late payments occurred, the more the score plummets, leading to a longer recovery wait.

Regarding your second question: Yes, you have a chance to get your credit score in good standing, but how soon is hard to say without seeing the total credit profile and score.

If you did nothing to help your credit, the negative information you described would drop off the credit report seven years from the date of the last delinquency.

As the delinquency date ages, the score will start to increase, so two more years from now will help even more.

The catch is, if you have no credit it will be hard to have an excellent score.

It would be a good idea to order your FICO scores from myfico.com and see exactly where you are.

If you buy the scores from FICO, they also offer a score simulator that can tell you what actions over the next year would help your score increase.

Tracy Becker

Tracy Becker is the president of North Shore Advisory, a credit restoration company in Tarrytown, N.Y.

Do you have a question for the Money Pros? Send an email to Phyllis Furman at pfurman@nydailynews.com.