It is pertinent for consumers to go above and beyond to maintain excellent credit scores. When your credit score tanks, you’re going to run into numerous issues. You’ll also have difficulty getting a loan.
Plus, you may not be able to get certain jobs. If you’re serious about succeeding in life, you need to do everything you can to perfect your credit score. While other things can damage your credit score, you cannot ignore late payments. If you fail to pay your bills on time, you’re going to regret it.
Below, you’ll learn more about late payments and the repercussions of not paying your bills on time.
The Basics
Most people have forgotten to pay a bill. Once this happens, you’re going to receive a reminder. Plus, most companies will charge a late fee. Therefore, you’ll pay extra because you didn’t pay the bill before the due date. The good news is that there is room for error here. Companies cannot report the late payment to the credit reporting agencies right away. Instead, they have to wait at least 30 days before reporting this information to the credit agencies.
Once this happens, your credit score may drop by 100 points or more. Suffice to say, you can’t let this happen. You need to go above and beyond to ensure that your bills are paid on time.
When It Impacts Your Credit Report
As mentioned above, companies cannot report this information to the credit reporting bureaus right away. Instead, companies are required by law to wait at least 30 days before reporting this information. If you pay the bill 29 days late, it won’t impact your credit score. However, you will experience other repercussions. The information on your credit report will impact your credit score. Suffice to say, late payments will make it difficult for you to get a mortgage or car loan.
Checking Your Report
It is a good idea to remove late payments from your credit report. Before you can achieve this goal, you’ll have to learn more about your current credit report. You should get a credit report from one of the reporting agencies. Until April 2022, consumers can get one free weekly credit report from the three agencies. Thankfully, you can obtain your credit report online easily. Once you’ve received the report, check it thoroughly. Make sure that the information is accurate. If the information is wrong, you can get it removed from your credit report.
Doing so will immediately boost your credit score.
Avoiding Such Problems
At the end of the day, you’ll want to go above and beyond to avoid late payments. After all, late payments are going to destroy your credit score. Plus, they’ll force you to pay a late fee. You can prevent such problems by signing up for auto-payments. The company will withdraw the money from your bank account every month. Alternatively, it will pay using your credit card automatically. If you don’t want to use these methods, create alerts on your smartphone so you’ll know when you need to pay your bills.