What Happens If You Miss a Credit Card Payment? (UK)

TL;DR: If you miss a credit card payment in the UK, three things happen: your lender can charge a late fee of up to £12, interest keeps running on the unpaid balance, and the miss can be recorded on your credit file, where it stays for six years. One missed payment hurts less than repeated misses, and paying quickly plus talking to your lender limits the damage.

Missing a payment happens to plenty of people, whether money is tight or the date simply slipped. What matters is what you do next, because the cost grows the longer the balance sits unpaid. This guide sets out what happens, in order, and what to do about it.

What happens straight away?

Four things can follow a missed due date:

• A late fee. Lenders typically charge up to £12 for a late credit card payment. The exact fee is in your card terms, so check your statement or your lender’s fees page.
• Interest keeps running. The unpaid balance continues to attract interest at your card’s standard rate, and you lose any interest-free grace period for the next month.
• You can lose a 0% deal. If you are on a 0% purchase or balance transfer offer, missing a payment can end the promotional rate early, and the standard rate applies instead. (Halifax)
• Your standard rate can rise. Some lenders raise your rate after a missed payment, so future borrowing on the card costs more. (ClearScore)

What happens to your credit score?

Lenders report your account status to the credit reference agencies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) on a monthly cycle. If your payment is still unpaid when the lender takes its next monthly snapshot, the miss may be recorded on your credit report. If you pay in full before that snapshot, the lender might not record it as missed at all, so speed genuinely matters. (ClearScore)

Once a missed payment is recorded, it stays on your file for six years, and lenders checking your file in future can see it. A single missed payment is far less damaging than a pattern of them, and its effect fades as newer, on-time payments build up. If missed payments continue and the account defaults, or a lender takes court action that ends in a County Court Judgment, those also stay on your file for six years.

To see what lenders actually see, start with our guide to getting your free credit report and checking your credit score for free.

What happens if you keep missing payments?

What does £1,000 unpaid cost?

Take a £1,000 balance where you miss one payment. The fee is up to £12. Interest for one month at your card’s standard rate is the balance times the annual rate divided by 12. As an illustration only, at 24% a year that is £1,000 times 24% divided by 12, which is £20 for the month. Your real rate is on your statement, so swap it into the same sum for your figure. The point is small: one miss costs roughly £32 in this illustration, but the same miss repeated every month, plus a lost 0% deal, is where the real money goes.

What to do next, in this order

1. Pay what you can now, at least the minimum. Paying before the lender’s next monthly snapshot can stop the miss being recorded at all.
2. Call your lender and say so. Lenders have hardship teams who can discuss a temporary payment plan or a lower minimum payment. Do not ignore it: lenders help people who get in touch far sooner than people who go quiet. (Experian)
3. Set up a Direct Debit for at least the minimum. This stops the same thing happening next month. You can pay extra on top whenever you like.
4. Check your file. See how to view your credit score without hurting it, then work through how to increase your credit rating if the miss has dented it.
5. If you cannot pay, get free help. Citizens Advice, StepChange and National Debtline give free, independent debt advice in the UK. They can talk to lenders for you and check whether a formal plan, such as a breathing space, fits your situation.

If a payment is now harder to get because your file took a hit, our guide to credit cards for bad credit explains how rebuilding works.

Frequently asked questions

Will one missed payment ruin my credit score? No, not on its own. It can lower your score and it stays on your file for six years if recorded, but one miss among otherwise on-time payments is much less damaging than repeated misses, and newer good payments dilute its effect over time.

How long does a missed payment stay on my credit file? Six years from the date it was recorded, if it is recorded at all. Paying before the lender’s next monthly snapshot can mean it never appears.

Can I get a missed payment removed from my file? If the record is wrong, ask the lender to correct it. If the record is right, you generally cannot have it removed early, but you can ask to add a short explanatory note to your file setting out what happened.

Does missing a payment cancel my 0% deal? It can. Lenders usually withdraw an interest-free offer if you miss a payment, and the standard rate then applies to the balance.

This is information only, not financial advice. If you are struggling with debt, free help is available from Citizens Advice, StepChange and National Debtline.

Published: 26 October 2026.