Late Payments
How Do Late Payments Affect My Credit Score?
35% of your credit score can be affected by late payments. By keeping on top of your payments you can affectively improve your credit score and keep it from dropping in the future. Once a late payment of 30 or more days is reported to the credit bureaus, it affects your credit score for several months after. Late payments of 90 days or more will greatly affect your FICO score and will take 24 months of on-time payments to recover from. There are also other affects, including the possibility of interest rate increases.
Late payments on more recently acquired credit affects your credit score more than those in your past, so remember to plan accordingly when budgeting to ensure that all of your payments are made on time. Many, if not all credit issues can be avoided simply by making a budget and sticking with it. It is important to live within your means and stay within a budget built on the amount of money you bring in every month. If you constantly live outside of that amount, running up credit, or worse, paying credit with credit, there is very little chance you will be able to improve your credit score. So by making a budget and living within your means, you can greatly improve your chances of improving your credit score.