Can One 30-Day Late Payment Hurt Your Credit?

When Is a Payment Considered Late?

A payment is considered late at 30 days past its due date, per credit reporting purposes. Your creditor may consider your payment late the day after it's due. However, creditors only report late payments to any of the three credit bureaus—Experian, TransUnion and Equifax—when it's at least 30 days beyond the date they were due. That's when a late payment may affect your credit score.

How Does a 30-Day Late Payment Impact Your Credit?

Any late payment reported to the credit bureaus will have a swift and significant effect on your credit scores. The impact one late payment may have depends on your unique credit history. You can check your FICO^® Score to see how a late payment impacted your credit.

For example, if you have excellent credit and this is your first late payment, your credit score may drop significantly—more dramatically than it would for someone who has already accumulated multiple late payments. Why? After a string of late payments, that person's credit score has already sustained damage.

On the other hand, your excellent credit score and clean history might allow you to maintain a relatively good score, even with one payment that's 30 days late. By starting out with a higher credit score, even a significant drop may still keep you in the good credit range.

In any case, a single 30-day late payment is less impactful than a payment that is 60, 90 or 120 days late.

Learn more: What Affects Your Credit Scores?

When Will a 30-Day Late Payment Fall Off Your Credit Report?

A 30-day late payment stays on your credit report for seven years from the date you missed the payment, at which point it will automatically drop off your credit report and no longer affect your credit score. The effect on your credit score also diminishes over time and as you practice good credit habits.

If your 30-day late payment turns into a 60-day, 90-day or 120-day late payment, the entire series will drop off your credit report seven years after the original delinquency date.

Learn more: Understanding Your Experian Credit Report

What if Your Payment Is Only a Few Days Late?

Being even a day late with your monthly payment may not affect your credit, but it can affect your credit accounts:

• Many credit cards charge immediate late fees. If you're as little as a day late paying your credit card, you could be charged a late fee.
• Credit cards may also increase your interest rate. A late payment may trigger a penalty annual percentage rate (APR), increasing your interest rate on future purchases.
• Mortgage and car loans may have a grace period. Many loan agreements allow you to up to 15 days before you're charged a late fee. Check your loan agreement for specifics.

A payment that's brought current before 30 days probably won't be reported to credit bureaus. Until that point, your late payment is an issue between you and your creditor. You may be subject to fees or penalty interest rates, but you shouldn't suffer a hit to your credit score.

Learn more: What Is a Grace Period?

How to Avoid Late Payments in the Future

Going forward, the best thing you can do for your credit scores is to avoid late payments and pay your bills on time, every time. A few tips to keep you on track:

• Set up autopay. Scheduling automatic minimum payments guarantees your bill won't be past due, even if you forget.
• Add payment due dates to your calendar. You can check to make sure automatic payments went through, or log in to your account early to increase your payment.
• Review your budget periodically. Prioritize spending so you have enough in your account to cover payments when they're due.

The Bottom Line

Payments may be better late than never, but if you want to keep your credit score in top shape, paying on time is decidedly best. As an extra safeguard against surprises, you may want to sign up for free credit monitoring with Experian. You'll be alerted whenever there's a change to your credit report, so you can catch the impacts of late payments as they occur, or, preferably, reassure yourself that late payments and negative consequences have never happened at all.