What really happens when you stop paying a credit card bill

The card issuer adds a late fee right away, reports you to the credit bureaus once the payment is 30 days late, can raise the rate on your existing balance after 60 days, and charges the account off at about 180 days. After that, the debt is usually sold or sent to a collection agency, and you can be sued until your state’s statute of limitations runs out. The credit damage can last about seven and a half years from the first missed payment.

Each step has its own rule, and each one is a point where you can still change the outcome.

The timeline, step by step

1. The day after the due date. A late fee posts. Its amount is in your cardholder agreement and is limited by a federal safe harbor that is adjusted each year; a 2024 CFPB rule that would have cut it to $8 at large issuers was vacated by a federal court in April 2025. The fee can’t exceed the minimum payment you missed.
2. Day 30. Once a payment is 30 days past due, the issuer can report it to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Payment history is the largest part of a FICO score, 35% by FICO’s own weighting, so one 30-day late can do lasting damage, and every further month behind adds another late mark.
3. Day 60. Under Regulation Z (12 CFR 1026.55(b)(4)), a penalty APR can be applied to your existing balance only after the minimum payment is more than 60 days late, and only with 45 days’ written notice. If you then make six consecutive on-time payments, the issuer must restore the old rate on that balance.
4. Days 60 to 180. The account is usually closed to new charges, the reported delinquency deepens to 90, 120 and 150 days, and the issuer’s own collections staff calls. The FDCPA does not cover a bank collecting its own debt, though some state laws do.
5. About day 180. Federal bank regulators’ retail credit policy calls for open-end accounts such as credit cards to be charged off once they are 180 days past due. The charge-off is an accounting entry; you still owe the money.
6. After the charge-off. The issuer keeps collecting, hires an agency or sells the account to a debt buyer. A new collector must send you a validation notice, and you can be sued for as long as your state’s limitations period allows.

What a $5,000 balance grows to

Take a $5,000 balance on a card with an APR of 24%, and suppose no payments are made. Interest adds $100 the first month, $102 the second and $104.04 the third, because each month’s interest is charged on the last month’s interest too. If a penalty APR of 29.99% takes effect in month four, after the 60-day mark and the 45-day notice, interest jumps to $132.61 that month.

By the sixth statement the balance is about $5,714, before a single late fee. Without the penalty rate it would be about $5,631. Add a late fee for each missed month and the number the collector eventually quotes you is well above what you charged. This example uses illustrative rates; your agreement lists your penalty APR and whether the card has one at all.

The charge-off and what follows it

A charge-off does not cancel the debt. It is the lender moving the loss off its books, and the account then shows on your credit report as charged off. If the lender sells the debt, the original account should drop to a $0 balance and a separate collection account appears under the buyer’s name. Both use the same clock: under the Fair Credit Reporting Act they can be reported for seven years starting 180 days after the first missed payment that led to the charge-off, though Equifax and Experian say they remove them seven years after the original delinquency date. A sale, a new collector or a payment does not restart it.

Using a first missed payment on March 1, 2026: the charge-off would come around the end of August 2026, and the negative history could be reported until about the end of August 2033 at the latest. Our guide to what a charge-off means explains your options for the account itself.

Collectors and a possible lawsuit

Third-party collectors and most debt buyers are bound by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F: a validation notice within five days of first contact, no calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., and a presumption of harassment above seven calls in seven days. Our page on what to do when a debt collector calls has the full list and a dispute letter.

A lawsuit is possible until the statute of limitations expires, commonly three to six years depending on the state. If you are served, answer before the deadline on the summons; ignoring it usually leads to a default judgment, and a judgment can lead to wage garnishment or a bank levy within federal and state limits. Civil judgments have not appeared on Equifax, Experian or TransUnion reports since 2017, but the collection account still can. The steps are in our guide to being sued by a debt collector.

How to get off the timeline

The earlier you act, the more options you have.

• Before the first missed payment, call the issuer and ask about a hardship program: a lower rate or payment for a set period, usually with the card closed to new purchases.
• If you are already behind, ask whether the issuer will bring the account current after you make payments under a plan. Federal bank policy allows that “re-aging” once a borrower has made at least three consecutive minimum monthly payments, no more than once in 12 months and twice in five years.
• If you can’t repay in full, a nonprofit credit counselor can set up a debt management plan, or you can negotiate a settlement on a charged-off account. Settling for less shows as settled, and forgiven debt is generally taxable: a creditor that cancels $600 or more files a Form 1099-C, though you may exclude the amount if you were insolvent just before the cancellation (IRS Form 982). Our comparison of credit counseling and debt settlement runs the numbers.
• If the debt can’t be repaid in any reasonable time, talk to a bankruptcy attorney. Chapter 7 can discharge credit card debt, and Chapter 13 sets a three to five year plan; both stop most collection once filed. See Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13.

The CFPB’s debt collection pages and the Regulation Z text have the rules quoted here.