Late payment fee affect credit score

Bookowl

Hi,
hope you can help. Last month I missed my credit card payment by a day. I received a late payment feee and contacted my bank straight away and paid it off in full. The late payment fee was credited back to my account. My bank has informed me that at this moment in time it shouldn’t affect my credit score but they have to inform the credit reference agencies of late payments.

I am wanting to know if there’s any way to find out if a late payment will be recorded on my credit file? If so, how much of it will affect my credit score? I’m with credit karma and Experian. My latest report on both of those show March as the last data they have, but I do understand it takes 4-6 weeks for updates to show. 

I have made all other credit card payments in full up until now and am on the electoral roll. I don’t know if they take that into consideration?

I am hoping to apply for a mortage in the next 2-3 years, if things work out. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[Deleted User]

If it appears on your credit files, lenders will take it into account. On a well managed file it's nothing major and its impact will fade with time.

Whether it makes any of your scores go up or down doesn't matter as no one will ever see them.

Check your files next month to see it has yet been registered.

Bookowl

Deleted_User said:

If it appears on your credit files, lenders will take it into account. On a well managed file it's nothing major and its impact will fade with time.

Whether it makes any of your scores go up or down doesn't matter as no one will ever see them.

Check your files next month to see it has yet been registered.

How will I know if it’s impacted if my scores aren’t taken into consideration? I thought that’s what lenders looked at?

Is there anything I can do once it’s been registered? I have now set myself a calendar reminder of the due date so  I don’t miss a payment again. 

[Deleted User]

Lenders don't see the scores.  They're just a fun gimmick that only you see.

You'll know if it's been recorded on your files by looking at the files - it'll be shown on each CRA they report to.

Each lender will then take it into account in assessing you for credit. There's no single answer as to the impact it has, apart from a range between 'very little to a lot' depending on the lender and the product you're applying for.

Time will improve things.

lisyloo

Bookowl said:

How will I know if it’s impacted if my scores aren’t taken into consideration? I thought that’s what lenders looked at?

Is there anything I can do once it’s been registered? I have now set myself a calendar reminder of the due date so  I don’t miss a payment again. 

No the credit scores are made up by companies that want to sell them. Each lender uses it's own criteria.
There is nothing you can do retrospectively if it's been registered other than avoiding future late payments e.g. you could set up a direct debit. A DD would be better than a calendar reminder as it's work if (for example) you're in hospital.
But no you cannot amend it, that's kinda the point - that they get a truthful untarnished picture of the history.
One should not be a big deal, you just need to avoid others.
I'd really suggest a DD so you don't have any other hiccups say on a leap year or extra bank holidays or something like that.
For a standard credit card or mortgage a single last payment should not stop you if there are no other issues.

Ebe_Scrooge

Scores are not used - or even seen - by lenders, they look purely at the underlying data.  If it does appear on your credit history, it will be seen and taken into consideration by any future lender.  As to how much difference it will make, no-one can know - each lender has their own, very different, criteria.  However, as ZX81 says, one late payment in an otherwise solid history will usually have a negligible effect.

Bookowl

Thanks for all the replies. Just a question with regards to setting up  a DD, my credit card payments fluctuates month to month, so it’s not the same payment every month. Any ideas to get round that? Could I set up a payment for my average spend and then add more to it if needs be?

[Deleted User]

No, just set up a full pay DD.  The whole point of a DD is that the correct amount is taken by the company.

Ebe_Scrooge

Just to elaborate a little on ZX81's comment, if you're new to paying by DD.  A DD is basically you giving authority to the company to take what they want from your account (or course, any reputable company would only take what they're owed, and you're covered by the DD guarantee if anything were to go wrong).  Crucially, it's different from a Standing Order, where you explicitly pay a set amount to a company each month, no more, no less, and the amount can only be varied by you.

When you set up a DD for a credit card you'll be given 3 options - Minimum Payment, a Fixed Amount, or Full Balance.  The 1st and 3rd options will always pay a variable amount each month as, of course, you'll have a different balance outstanding each month.  But the card company will just take what is required - your only obligation is to make sure you've got enough cash in the account to honour the DD.  And you probably already know this, but paying in full each month means you pay no interest, a bonus is that each payment is an extra Brownie point on your credit history.

Bookowl

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Just to elaborate a little on ZX81's comment, if you're new to paying by DD.  A DD is basically you giving authority to the company to take what they want from your account (or course, any reputable company would only take what they're owed, and you're covered by the DD guarantee if anything were to go wrong).  Crucially, it's different from a Standing Order, where you explicitly pay a set amount to a company each month, no more, no less, and the amount can only be varied by you.

When you set up a DD for a credit card you'll be given 3 options - Minimum Payment, a Fixed Amount, or Full Balance.  The 1st and 3rd options will always pay a variable amount each month as, of course, you'll have a different balance outstanding each month.  But the card company will just take what is required - your only obligation is to make sure you've got enough cash in the account to honour the DD.  And you probably already know this, but paying in full each month means you pay no interest, a bonus is that each payment is an extra Brownie point on your credit history.

Thanks very much for this very useful! Should I set a DD for the 7th of every month if it’s due on 9th? Just encase there’s bank holidays or a weekend etc 

Ebe_Scrooge

You don't specify a date for the DD, the card company will just take it when it's due - though they will tell you what the date will be (it depends on your billing cycle).  You should get confirmation of the date shortly after you set up the DD.