credit rating-late payment

NickX

barclaysguy wrote: »

Late payments are the first sign of financial diff to a bank!

If the rest of your credit file is top notch then it probally wont stop you getting credit but may affect your interest rate. However some companies decline everything if there are any late payments on your credit file in the last 12 months.

Hmmm, I don't really agree with you.

Yes late payments could be a sign of financial difficulties, but much more likely they are a sign of poor financial management. Just look at the number of posts on this board made by people complaining of a £12 late payment charge and removal of promotional rates. I am sure that they are not all having financial difficulties, they just made a mistake.

In some respects the card companies want customers like this because they earn extra revenue on the late fees and more in interest from them.

I have never heard of anyone being denied credit due to a single late payment. I believe that even Capital One's very stringent "excellent credit" criteria allow for a single late payment in the last 12 months.

IMO non-payment or failing to reach the minimum payment requirement would be much more an indicator of financial difficulties.

jak

Actually I believe it does. i've 1 late payment in the last 3 years and it was late NOT missed and that is on my credit file.

nickmack

jak wrote: »

Actually I believe it does. i've 1 late payment in the last 3 years and it was late NOT missed and that is on my credit file.

As YorkshireBoy says, it sounds like you missed the CRA batch run for that month. A late payment may be recorded internally, but if you pay before the credit update takes place, it is not normally recorded on your file for other companies to see.

nomoneytoday

Your credit records for that card will read 000001 instead of 000000

A single late payment will be nothing to worry about, as most banks won't pay too much attention until it has higher numbers.

kiden

i'm usually very good with money, but dealing with mum's probate, keeping on top of my dad's admin (he's got alzheimer's), sorting out an issue with an alarm maintenance contract, redoing the bathroom, deciding on a remortgage deal, and changing jobs - all at the same time - took it's toll this fortnight when i missed paying off the £37 on my card (minimum payment required: £4)

Santander were good enough to remove the £12 charge, and remove the 90p interest they'd charged (even though I hadn't gone over 56 days, apparently once you miss a payment, interest kicks in regardless of how many days it's been..)

anyway.. to get to the point, they told me - when i was settling and closing the account to avoid future mishaps* - that they have a legal obligation to inform the credit reference people that i made a late payment and that there is no way to stop it going on my credit file.

apart from this mortgage i'm currently signing up to (which shuld go through before this hits the systems), I never use credit, so I can't see it being a problem.. hopefully. it's just annoying to think that a minor human error (reasonable I think in the circumstances) may cause me problems in the future - it'd be nice to know exactly what problems these might be.

*i only used the card 3 times - once cus it got me a significant discount (that's when i took it out) and twice more for online payments that wouldn't accept any other type of card.

(addendum - a little money spider has just crawled up my monitor!)

CannyJock

One late payment won't make any difference to your credit rating even if you did need credit.

One less thing to worry about when you've already got your hands full

Karl.H_2

Does anybody happen to know how many late payments become a problem. Perhaps a few in a row?

Moggles_2

Karl.H wrote: »

Does anybody happen to know how many late payments become a problem. Perhaps a few in a row?

Sorry, only the lender knows the answer.

Late payments are viewed as negative only if you attract more than a couple in a short space of time. Even then, the effect on your credit rating is fairly short-lived. Each one drops off your file after 36 months in the case of Experian, 48 months with Equifax.

It's your payment history with all your creditors over the last 6 years that counts, with particular emphasis on the most recent 12 months, so the significance of late payments diminishes as they recede into the background.

Hope this helps