will a late car payment ruin my credit?

Answer 1

One late payment won't ruin your credit. You score will take a small hit, but it will recover almost immediately. Multiple late payments do the real damage. The credit bureaus classify accounts as Current, 30-59 days late, 60-89 days late, etc. A single payment a few days late won't even show up on your report.

Answer 2

It won't RUIN it, but it will severely damage it. Here's what creditors look at when evaluating you:

1. How much credit do you have outstanding - in other words, how many credit cards do you have and how much money is currently out on them. How much is your car loan, and how much is your house payment

2. Are you maxed? Do you have 3 credit cards with $1,000 available on each and they are all maxed out? Creditors see this as a sign of someone who has trouble controlling themselves and being responsible

3. Do you pay your bills on time? Are you late a lot? Every month you pay on time the creditors put an "on-time" mark on your credit. If you are 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, etc. late they put an appropriate mark for these. So when a creditor looks at your credit report he sees how often you have been late on a bill in the last 12 months or so.

4. Major items like car payments - are you late or on time? This is a big one. Most everyone needs 2 basic things in life. A roof over their head and a car to get from A to B. If a person is willing to risk losing either one of these then they are a major risk for smaller credit (credit cards, store credit, etc.).

If you can avoid it, NEVER be late on a house or a car. These two things will impact your credit more than anything else.

What most people don't know is that most car lenders will do something called "deferring." This is where they take a payment (or a portion of a payment) and MOVE it to the back of the loan. So let's say your car is due to be paid off in April, now it will be paid off in May. They will usually do this TWICE during the course of a loan so don't think it's available all the time, use your opportunities wisely.

When I first started selling cars 3 years ago I had a very bad second month and could not make my GMAC car payment. I called them up and explained the situation. They faxed me a paper to sign (to stop the automatic withdrawal of the payment from my bank account) and I mailed them a "partial payment" of $150 (I think?).

So instead of paying off my car this coming January, now it will be paid off in February - BIG DEAL! I don't have a late payment on my credit, that's all I cared about!

Call your lender and see if you can "defer" a payment. I'll bet you can!

Also, if you are truly desperate, try getting pre-approved for a credit card and put the payment on that. Trust me! Don't be late. You have a 10 day grace period for the car payment before it's considered "truly late" so explore all your options!

If you want to try for a credit card you can check out my website here: http://www.1-800badcredit.com.

Good luck to you!

Answer 3

SUGGESTION: If you can't pay your car payment this month or you think it will be late, call your loan company and ask to defer this months payment to the other end of the loan. This will extend your payments by one month and will cost just a few extra dollars in interest but it will not affect your credit rating and the bank will be happy that you informed them and worked out a solution.

Answer 4

One late payment doesn't ruin your credit, but it doesn't look good, either. It will make your score go down.

Answer 5

No, not just one, and it depends on how late. I don't think they even consider it late, if it is within a few days.