I never pay my phone bill on time. Does that affect my credit or anything else financially?

Answer 1

Only if the phone company decides to report it to the credit bureau. You are usually safe as long as you pay your bill within 60 to 90 days.

Answer 2

Yes it will effect your credit. Its not collections level but will be reported as "slow pay". Many companies only report to the agencies semi-annually or even annually. So fly right from here and you should be OK.

If it is your home phone look at your bill. Look for the features that you don't use. Why have long distance when you get free nights and weekends on your cell? The phone companys have a way of sneaking things in there over time. For that matter if you have a cell and are not using dialup why have a land line?

If it is your cell you need to review your program. They passed a law where you can keep your number if you switch carriers. Maybe you have a plan that has more minutes than you need. Maybe at home you could use your landline more for local calls.

Whatever the case not paying a bill on time will effect your credit. Every once in a while pay too much on your bill when you can. Think "getting ahead". Think about automatic bill pay. This works with most bills. You pretend that you just make less and adjust accordingly.

Answer 3

Unless the phone company reports to the credit bureaus, it won't affect your score. If you miss multiple payments, they will refer you to their internal collections department and it could ultimately reflect onto your credit report. If you're a week late or something, no, it won't affect anything. If you're constantly late on paying the bill, you need to take 30 minutes out of your life and construct a budget. You KNOW the bill is coming in every month, so it shouldn't be hard to plan 3-weeks to a month in advance to make sure you have enough money put away to pay the bill on time.

if you're too busy to pay the bill on time, then you're too busy to own the item that creates the bill.

Answer 4

Since this a utilities bill and not an extension of credit being late on a payment for a phone bill will not effect your credit score. Utilities do not report your account status to the three credit bureaus.

The only time your credit will be affected by a utility company is if your account gets sent to collections. This mostly happens if you are 60days+ late.

Hope this helps!

The Loan MD

Answer 5

No it doesn't the only thing that makes your credit look bad is if you say for example have a bank account and always overdraw in it... never paying credit cards on time or paying car payments or insurance on time..little things like the cell phone coesn't hurt it..you could always have it turned off and when it does get turned off then you could turn it back on.. but if they take your car away or your bank account away then it will be kind of hard to get back...

Answer 6

Don't believe everything you hear. Utilities are not credit or credit-type accounts. Utilities do not report to the credit bureaus like credit cards or car loans do. To answer your question, no. Late payments will not affect your credit.
It will have a negative impact on your credit if it is turned over to collections, however.

Answer 7

Ussualy yes it will, but it depends on the plan you have with your phone company. If your bills end up in collections it can really hurt your credit score...

Answer 8

Late payments to any utility company will show up on your credit report. You won't get dinged as badly as non-payment, but you are shaving some points off of your FICO score.

Answer 9

Not at all, since it's not a credit account.

However, if your phone gets turned off due to nonpayment or late payment, you will have to put a deposit down.

Answer 10

No,they do not report to credit bureaus unless a collection agency is involved !!