This can almost be too late.  For example if you have a credit report errors.  These are going to take at least 30 to 45 days to be disputed and possibly removed from your credit report.  If they are not removed, you then have to contact your account to dispute the item and hopefully have them remove it.  This will take even more time.

A more aggressive approach is to check you credit report every six months.  I know that you get just one free one per year, but shows your financial fitness.  You need to protect it.

If you just want to sleep at night not thinking about checking your credit report every 6 months you could sign up for a credit monitoring program.  They do cost money, but not as much as you think.  The best bang for your buck is the MyFICO quarterly monitoring.

So lets compare this to a 3in1 credit report that you would normally get which costs 39.95.  This is every single one you get costs this much.  With MyFICO quarterly monitoring it costs $49.95 per year.  That is just $10 more.  What you get will quarterly monitoring is a lot.  First, you get to review your credit report every quarter.  You will also get your FICO score every quarter.  Plus you will get $25,000 in identity theft insurance.

So if you are wanting to check your report twice a year you would spend around $80.  If you want to check your credit report and get your FICO score quarterly it cost $49.95.  Check it out for yourself: FICO® Quarterly Monitoring

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The longer the time of a late payment the larger negative effect it carries.

• 30 Days Late – Being 30 days late is hurtful when your are reported as being currently late.  If paid their weight is not large, but will grow if you consistently make late payments.  A pattern forms painting a picture of a person who pays late.
• 60 Days Late – 60 days late has the same effect that as being 30 days late.
• 90 Days Late - Being 90 days late will follow you around and could possibly hurt a credit score for up to seven years.  90 days is a often a company standard for what is considered bad debt or possibly uncollectible.  Creditors at all cost want to avoid payments that are 90 days late and even one can a large drop in a credit score.
• 120 Days Late - at this point of severity creditors consider the debt to uncollectible and this is often then written off or is sent to a collection agency.

Being 120 days late can result in several outcomes besides just being listed as late.  It can result in:

• Settlements – these are agreements between a creditor and individual in the effort by the creditor to collect some if not all the debt.  This is a severe delinquency and will be noted as a debt settlement on your credit report.
• Repossession and Foreclosure – obviously the taking back of collateral whether house or car is a true sign of delinquency.  This as serious as it comes and will be noted accordingly on your credit report.
• Collections – if after a certain point a creditor believes that debt will remain in delinquency, they will send the account to collections.  This is often farmed out to a collection agency.  Additionally, paying the collection agency will not have them removed from your credit report.

You need to understand that being late on any amount regardless of the amount carries the same negative effect on your credit score.  So a late amount of $40 is just as negative as being late on $1000.

You need to avoid late payments.  Their implications can haunt a credit report for a very long period of time.  If you are late catch them early and get your payment in.  Hitting the 90 day mark will especially follow you around.

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