How Long Do Late Payments Affect Credit Score (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 7 years

The late payments would stay on the credit report for around 7 years. The late payment can become the reason why the credit score falls down. People who keep on repeating the late payments would not get eligible for the loans. The late payments stay in the history which can be seen by the lenders.

These lenders may not give loans to the person with late payment as they may not trust the person. People who pay the money on time would be more capable to get credit cards from lenders without any trust issues. The late payments and credit score play a vital role in representing the capacity of the person.

The lenders would check both credit score and history to know if the person can give back the money according to the interest rate or not. People who are having late payment money for a long time would have huge repercussions.

How Long Do Late Payements Affect Credit Score?

People with late payments for less than 30 days would not see a huge impact of it on their credit score. The person should try to clear the late payments before the completion of 30 days. If the late payment is due for more than a month or 30 days, then it would hugely affect the credit score.

For a single time a late payment has passed more than 30 days, the credit score will go down by 100 points. If the person keeps on repeating the late payment for more than 30 days, then it would have long-lasting repercussions on both the credit report and score.

A single late payment will not have effects for a long time, but repeated late payments would destroy a good credit score. If someone is not able to clear the late payment for more than 90 days, then it would stay on the credit report for around 7 years. The person should keep a track of all the payments to be done.

Paying the payments on time will help in maintaining a good credit score. Many people activate auto-debit facilities. This facility would help the person to not skip paying the payments on time. In this system, the money would get debited after getting authorization by the cardholder when the time of late payment would come.

Everyone should try to set up reminders to not skip the payment.

Why Do Late Payments Affect Credit Score For This Long?

The late payments would make the person not eligible for the loans and interest rate if they are repeated continuously. The delinquency would stay for around 7 years, and after 7 years the credit score will not get affected by the late payment. It doesn’t mean the person can do late payments after 7 years.

People can try to pay the payment on a weekly basis to avoid chaos. The time for how long the credit score would get affected by the late payments depends on the countries rules and guidelines. For example, in India, the time would be 7 years while for the UK it would be 6 years. 

The late payments would get vanished from the credit report when the time to pay the money gets expired. The legal expiration for paying the late payments may be different for all the countries. Everyone should make a note to not skip the late payments, as it would create a bad impression of the person in front of the lenders.

The person may not be able to get a high or less amount of loan if they have a late payment in their credit report.

Conclusion

The late payments are not good for the people as they would create a bad reputation on the lenders. Everyone should try to maintain regularity in paying the payments.

Once the payment is missed, the person should try to pay the payments at the earliest. If somebody could not pay the payments on time, then they will not get loans on low interest.

References

1. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10672-008-9071-5
2. https://ideas.repec.org/p/euf/ecopap/0531.html