As human beings we will come across hurdles and overcome them. As for your credit report though those hurdles can continue to reflect for up to seven years. Today we will cover some tips on how to avoid late payments overall and how to recover from them should you face them.
Auto Draft Payments
Auto draft payments are a very convenient way to pay the bills. Auto draft allows you to schedule your payments to simply come out from your account on the assigned date. This method of paying bills will allow you to avoid any missed and late payments, acquiring any fees and penalties, and also assures your service goes uninterrupted. An additional tip, if possible set it up through your direct bank account. This will additionally avoid any issues with a late payment if you have your auto draft set though your card and if you are issued a new credit or debit card in the future.
Set Up Reminders
Even if you are to set up auto draft payments, you may still need to remind yourself not to spend that money! There is a plethora of apps now available to use simply through your smart phone. Additionally some of these apps can help track your personal finances and help better financial planning. This helps as for many the key to avoiding late payments is just good financial planning to make sure all bills are paid.
Communicate With Your Lenders
You know how they say communication is key? This is definitely true if you’re facing financial issues like the loss of a job or other serious issues. Talk to your lender! You can try to reach an agreement with your lender that will help you both. Lenders will dislike an account that goes into collections much more as it is more costly on their end. See if you can reach an agreement for a grace period or a smaller payment. This should help you to catch up and avoid you being late to begin with.
Ask For Removal
Once again, we’re human and we are not perfect. If your late payment was a one time occurrence you can try to ask your lender to remove the late payment from your credit file. It doesn’t hurt to ask and if you’re successful you just avoided a red mark on your file. Lenders can make these kind of goodwill adjustments for borrowers who under other conditions are usually in good standing with their credit.
Catch Up
If you couldn’t quite catch up before, start catching up now. Establishing several months’ of on-time payments will benefit you. Even if you make just the minimum monthly payment it is still better than nothing to avoid any further late payments and to avoid any accounts rolling into collections.
Check Your Credit Report
Always check your report at least once a year, after all you are given one free yearly. You want to make sure it is capturing that you are now caught up on your payments, or if any agreements were made to remove a late payment were satisfied. If you show any inaccuracies file a dispute to make sure it gets corrected as soon as possible.
MSI Credit Solutions provides superior credit restoration and comprehensive consulting services that are reliable and affordable. For any questions or to schedule a free credit consultation, contact us at (866) 217-9841.
*The information in this article has been provided strictly for educational purposes.
