The effect of late payments will always show on your credit report and will almost always drop your credit score if you are more then 30 days late. The main effect of late payments is the effect it has on your ability to refinance your mortgage. If you have a 30 day late payment you will no longer qualify for a conforming mortgage and you will have to refinance through a sub prime or Alt-A lender.

The most important debt to keep up to date is without a doubt your mortgage payment. Before you pay any other debt each month, make it a priority to pay your mortgage payment. Contact your loan servicer immediately if you feel you cannot make your mortgage ppayment for the month.

Late payments on certain types of accounts have more of a negative effect on you than others. In regards to applying for a mortgage refinance, late payments on your existing mortgage accounts are worse than late payments on credit cards or installment notes.

If you have late payments reporting to your credit report that are not accurate, then you need to dispute these immediately. The effect of these late payments on your credit report can be devastating and can cause you to have to obtain a higher interest rate than what you should be qualifying for due to the lower credit score. To dispute these late payments you will need to order a copy of your credit report and you can dispute this online. You can also dispute the late payments by mail to the credit bureaus. Lastly, you can simply contact the creditor reporting the late payments and make them have the inaccurate information corrected themselves.

 

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