 TITLE: When Do Late Payments Get Reported? CONTENT: Do Late Payments Affect Your Credit Score?\n------------------------------------------\nLate payments can hurt your credit scores, although the impact will depend on your overall credit profile and how far behind you fall on your payments.\nGenerally, a single late payment will lead to a greater score drop if you had excellent credit and a clean credit history. If you already have poor credit and your credit report shows other late payments, a new late payment could still hurt your score, but it may lower your score by fewer points.\nThe further behind you fall on your payments, the greater the potential impact on your credit scores. For example, having an account that is 60, 90 or 120 days past due will likely be worse for your credit than a single 30-day late payment. In addition, the impact of late payments on your credit scores typically decreases over time. And after seven years, late payments will fall off your credit report and won't impact your scores at all.\nFiguring out when a late payment will be removed from your credit report can sometimes be confusing, though. If you miss a payment and then bring your account current, the late payment will fall off after seven years, but the rest of your payment history on the account will stay on your credit report. If you miss another payment after bringing your account current, that late payment will have its own seven-year timeline for removal.\nWhen late payments lead to an account being closed, perhaps when the creditor sends the account to collections or charges off the account, the entire account and all related negative marks get deleted seven years after the first late payment. END