Consumers beware!
Most people know that paying your credit card bill past the due date will effect the interest rate on your card. The more times you pay late the higher your interest rate will climb until it reaches the legal maximum.
But what many consumers are not aware of is that if you have several credit cards that are related to or affiliated with the same parent company, when you are late on a payment to one card it will affect the interest rate on ALL your cards.
If you must be late on payment, don't let it be your mortgage. Next, if you must choose which credit payments to be late on, it is best to have the fewest number of late payments. So, it would be better to be late on a $200 credit card payment than late on two credit card payments totaling $200, such as a $120 payment and a $80 payment.
If you have a good history of being on time with your payments your credit card company may forgive a single late payment by not reporting it to the Credit Bureaus. This is entirely optional, so don't expect to be forgiven subsequent late payments.
Making late payments on credit cards should be avoided at almost all costs. The mistake many homeowners make is waiting too long after credit card balances get out of hand before taking action. The late payments of course have a very negative effect on the cardholders credit score which could make any future refinance or debt consolidation efforts either more difficult or most costly.
Since the minimum payment on credit cards will rise very shortly, it is important that you read the back page of your bill. This will disclose its late payment policy and the affiliated cards that a late payment will affect.
If you are 30 days late on any payment this will affect your credit score and it can adversely affect the interest rate that you get if you are trying to purchase or refinance.
The payment has to be a full 30 days late. A 30 day late on a consumer debt is damaging to your credit. However a 30 day late on a mortgage payment can be even worse.
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