A late payment is a type of derogatory mark that can appear on your credit report. Any bill on a credit account that your creditor reported to one of the credit bureaus as at least 30 days overdue will appear as a late payment.
Late payments don’t appear on your credit report until they exceed this 30-day deadline (and some creditors won’t report them until they’re a full 60 days overdue).
This means that if you have a payment that’s just slightly overdue, i.e., between 1 and 29 days late, paying it will enable you to avoid incurring a derogatory mark on your credit report and damaging your credit score.
With that said, creditors have their own standards and protocols for late payments. For example, you could face late fees, increased interest rates, or other penalties after your payment is a certain number of days overdue. This could be just one day or longer, depending on the terms of your credit agreement.