How long do late payments stay on my credit report?

Key takeaway: Late payments can linger on your credit reports for up to seven years. Though catching up on payments helps now, making consistent payments over time will help recover your overall credit health.

Late payments can stay on credit reports for up to seven years, and they won’t disappear just because you bring your account current.

You can, however, take steps to minimize the damage late payments have to your credit scores. Once you catch up on your payments, you can make a plan to avoid future late payments and maybe even get the ones currently on your reports removed.

Credit Karma provides free credit reports and VantageScore 3.0^® credit scores from TransUnion and Equifax. Checking your reports can help you keep track of derogatory marks like late payments and know which lenders to contact if you believe they were added by mistake.

Let’s dig into what happens when a late payment is added to your credit reports and how to avoid late payments in the future.

• What is a late payment?
• How do late payments affect my credit scores?
• When do late payments fall off credit reports?
• How to remove late payments from credit reports
• Next steps: How to avoid late payments
• FAQs about late payments

What is a late payment?

A late payment is when you pay your bill after the due date — even if you pay it just one day late. Any account with a bill that goes unpaid after the due date is considered delinquent. In most cases, if your payment is more than 30 days late, your lender will report it to one or more credit bureaus, and the late payment will show up on your credit reports.

Common consequences of a late payment include:

• Late payment fees: Some lenders provide a grace period where you can pay the bill and not be charged a late fee, while others will charge you a fee immediately.
• Penalty APRs: Some lenders will add a higher APR to your account if you miss a payment, especially if you miss more than one.
• Loss of promotional APRs: Depending on how late you make your payment, your lender may take away certain features of your account, such as promotional interest rate offers.

Late payment vs. missed payment

If it’s been more than 30 days and you still haven’t paid the minimum on your bill, it will typically be considered a missed payment. If the account goes unpaid long enough, it will eventually go into default.

How do late payments affect my credit score?

Late payments can have a negative impact on your credit scores because payment history is typically the most important factor when calculating credit scores. Payment history accounts for roughly 35% of your total FICO Score 8^® credit scores and 40% of your total VantageScore 3.0^® credit scores.

The exact impact your late payments have on your credit scores will depend on a variety of factors, including:

• How late the payments are. A longer delinquency — 60, 90 or 120 days, for example — will have a greater negative impact on your scores than a shorter delinquency of just 30 days. 
• The number of late payments. More delinquencies usually result in a more significant negative impact to your scores.
• The amount of time they’ve been on your reports. A delinquency will have the largest impact on your credit scores when it’s first reported. But, as the delinquency ages, the impact on your scores should decrease. 

Each credit scoring model has its own way of evaluating your reported information and assigning you a credit score. A late payment could have a more significant impact on one score than on another, which is one reason why your scores may vary.

When do late payments fall off credit reports?

A late payment will typically fall off your credit reports seven years from the original delinquency date. For example, a 30-day late payment reported in June 2026 would drop off your reports in June 2033, seven years after it was initially reported.

The same generally applies if you miss two payments in a row. If you make a 60-day late payment that’s reported in June 2026, both the May 2026 and June 2026 delinquencies would be removed in May 2033.

How to remove late payments from credit reports

You can sometimes remove a late payment from your credit reports—but not always. Here are some steps you can take if you want to try:

1. Bring the account current. Before doing anything else, you need to make sure you pay whatever is owed on your account(s) to bring them current. If you believe the lender mistakenly reported a late payment, skip to step four.
2. Ask your lender to remove the delinquency. If you have a good relationship with the lender and an otherwise positive payment history, you may be able to call the lender and ask them to remove the delinquency. This is especially true if it’s your first late payment. 
3. Write a goodwill letter. Similarly to asking your lender to remove the delinquency outright, you can write them a goodwill letter. This letter would explain your history with the lender, your situation and the fact that you take responsibility for making late payments. You may have better luck with this method if you have an otherwise stellar history of making payments on time but were hit with financial hardship.
4. Dispute the late payments as errors on your credit reports. If you see a payment on your credit reports that was incorrectly marked late, you can dispute the error with the credit bureaus. You have the right to challenge errors on your reports, and if a credit bureau can’t verify the accuracy of the information on your report, it must remove that information. Notify your lender to explain that you’re disputing the information provided to the bureau. 

Credit Karma offers free credit reports from two of the major credit bureaus, TransUnion® and Equifax®. You can dispute an erroneous late payment on your TransUnion credit report using Credit Karma’s Direct Dispute™ feature. To start, simply click on the account with the error and look for Direct Dispute™ in the details of the account.

Next steps: Avoid future late payments and monitor your credit

Avoiding late payments can be simple if you set up a plan and have the resources to cover your expenses.

One tactic is to set up automatic payments on your accounts. If you set them to pay your statement balance in full each month, you won’t have to worry about making a late payment or being charged interest. This is one of the easiest ways to stay out of debt and build credit.

If you don’t want to use autopay, you can set recurring calendar reminders for yourself to pay each bill before the due date. Just don’t forget to add a reminder each time you open a new account or when your payment date changes.