You have just checked your credit reports and you realize that you forgot to make the last payment. Now you are worried if late payment affects your credit score. Of course, the late payment may somehow affect the credit score. Even if you are paying your bills regularly and once you just could not make up to pay on time, it can have a negative impact on your score. However, the good news is that if your payment is less than 30 days late, the creditor will not report it to the Credit Reporting Agencies. Thus, your late payment will not be displayed on your credit report. If the late payments are quite rare, then it will not cause much damage to it. Nevertheless, be aware that the late payment may not exceed 90 days, as the creditors will consider that you are more likely to do it again. Thus, the financial institutions or the insurance companies make use of the credit scores as the best way to predict how reliable a customer will be. The late payments eventually affect it in many ways, such as – Low credit score is difficult to improve – Once you have a low credit score, it may take months and years of sustained behaviour by the borrower to regain the good one. Difficult access to credit – Even if you paying on time, one default will affect your reputation that will make your access to the credit more difficult. If you have missed a payment, there are certain points, which you can consider so that it might not affect the credit report, like – Pay the bills as soon as possible – Pay your unpaid bills as soon as possible by making a budget for it. It will surely cause less damage to the score. Contact your lender to make a payment plan – If you are already aware that due to some reasons you may not be able to make payment on time, contacting your lender for an effective payment plan will be the best option. Keep an eye on your credit score – Always remain informed about your score file as you can easily spot if you have missed any payments or not. No doubt, missing a payment can have an impact on your score, but still as long as the subsequent payments are made, the impact of late payments will be reduced. If you are the one who is worried of bad credit ratings, you should seek help from experts. They can help you improve your credit score gradually.