 TITLE: What to Do if You’re Late on a Credit Card Payment CONTENT: How Do Late Credit Card Payments Affect Your Credit?\n----------------------------------------------------\nSince payment history is the most important factor in determining your credit score, late payments can really drag down your scores. With the FICO® Score☉ model, this single metric counts for 35% of your credit score, over a third of the overall calculation. So, anything you can do to make sure that your payment history only has \"on time\" statuses will help you keep your score healthy.\nOnce a late payment is recorded on your credit report, it will remain there for up to seven years, so it is imperative that you try to avoid this at all costs. A late payment's impact on your credit scores can vary, and tends to be more exaggerated for those whose scores are high. Its impact will also be blunted as time goes on, with more recent late payments taking a bigger toll on your credit score than older ones.\nPaying off an account that's been sent to collections might be a wise move to stop calls from debt collectors and improve how lenders view you, but its impact on your credit scores could be moot. END