If Your Credit Scores Are Down From Being Late How Long Does it Take to Bring Them Back Up?

Borrowers currently delinquent on a monthly debt can reverse almost all of the damage from a late payment if they act quickly. A revamp of the Fair Isaac risk model in 2008 resulted in the algorithm punishing the random slip-up far less than people that constantly miss payments. Once you become current, take extreme care not to mess up again, because you could cause heavy damage for years.

30 to 60 Days Late

Payment late by 30 to 60 days are the least serious of the missed payments. As long as you pay the delinquent bill now, you can probably gain back most of those points, according to The Motley Fool. The Fair Isaac Corporation, designer of the algorithm used by most lenders, changed its scoring system in 2008 to make these occasional missed payments much less insignificant unless defaults become habitual. )

90 Days and Later

Missing a bill due date by 90 days or more is a serious event in a borrower's credit history. It will probably take a year or more to recover from a bill this late. Also, any future missed payments look much worse in comparison. Lenders often refuse to lend to borrowers with a 90-day late payment on their report, and it does not matter how small or large your bill is.

Charge Off

Once you become 180 days late on a bill, the creditor must legally write off as a bad debt. The lender probably sells it to a collection agency and this new negative account does more damage for a longer period of time than any late payment. Unfortunately, the FICO formula contains so many variables and other incidents or changes can happen after paying the delinquent bill, that it is impossible to say how long you need to recover. If you act like a good borrower and pay bills on time, you might only need two years.

Tip

You cannot remove late payments from your credit history unless the creditor reported the bill date incorrectly, so it is better just to catch up on what you owe and continue paying on time every month. Assuming you continue paying down debt, your score eventually recovers. Creditors usually offer help for temporary emergencies, such as large hospital bills or unemployment. Thus, letting a bill go unpaid is the worst course of action.