| Let’s say you made one of those big no-no credit | | | | knock 100 points off your credit score – ouch! Late |
| mistakes. You went out of town on vacation for a | | | | payments by people who already have a crummy |
| week, came back home and realized you totally forgot | | | | credit score won’t get dinged nearly as bad. |
| to pay your credit card bill. It happens all of the time. | | | | This may actually not be entirely true though. The way |
| Chances are you are okay. The worst thing that may | | | | FICO is calculating credit scores going forward now |
| happen is you have to pay a late fee, but more than | | | | gives some forgiveness to people who made that |
| likely the creditor won’t report your one-time late | | | | one-time mistake, but will further penalize people who |
| payment to the credit agencies. Most lenders and | | | | have a history of not paying their bills. |
| creditors will not report bad repayment history until you | | | | The best solution to make sure this does not happen is |
| are 90 days late, and if they do not report it, it does | | | | to set up automated bill paying. That way, no matter |
| not end up on your credit report. Since your credit | | | | what, your bills get paid. |
| score is calculated by the information on your credit | | | | If, however, you have a history of making late |
| report, you’re in the clear. | | | | payments, you’re in a bit more trouble. You’ll |
| But what if they do and that late payment ends up on | | | | wan to get a copy of your credit report and take |
| your credit report. Sadly, if you have an otherwise | | | | some of the steps to increase your credit score, which |
| good credit score, this will affect you the most. It could | | | | you can do completely on your own. |