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Negative items will remain on your credit report for at least 7-10 years. The best way to improve credit score is to make payment on time. Late payments hurt your credit score by 35%. Usually when you start making payments on time, your credit score goes up gradually with time. But, it is very difficult to say how much point it will raise. The following link may help you in this regard:
"http://credit.about.com/od/creditrepair/tp/improvecredit.htm"