How far behind can I get in my credit payments before my credit accounts are suspended or closed?

[cinque8]

Hello,

I recently lost my job and I am about 30 days behind on most of my credit account payments.  How far behind can I get on my payments before my accounts are suspended or close?

Thank you

[Harry Seaward]

They won't be "closed" until they are charged off, which happens around 6 months of no payments. As far as when they stop allowing you to make purchases with the card, each creditor is different, but i would expect most will cut you off once you go 30 days past due, if not right when you first miss the payment due date. 

If you opted for insurance with any of your accounts, now is the time to take advantage of that. If you don't have insurance, expect a minimum of $100/mo in late and over limit fees to be added over and above the interest rate you're already paying. And then you'll be paying interest on that additional $100/mo.  If you have a lot of debt and don't expect to find a good paying job in the next couple of weeks, your debt will compound and skyrocket in no time to where you'll never get yourself out of the hole, so now is the time to start looking into bankruptcy. 

One alternative is to get a loan to pay off all of your credit card debt. Prosper and OneMain are good options for this kind of thing. Even if you can't make payments on the loan right away, the interest rate is fixed and you have only one late fee per month instead of one (and possibly an over limit fee) per credit card. You have a narrow window of opportunity with this option. Once your cards report 30-days late, no one is going to give you a loan. This also only works if your credit card utilization isn't over 30 or 40 %.

[cinque8]

Thanks Harry,

I was really nervous about that. That's more than enough time for me to get back on my feet.

Thanks!