What Would Happen If You Stopped Paying Your Credit Card Bill?

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you stopped paying your credit card bill, then you’re reading the right article!

Today we’re going to take a look at all of the consequences of not paying your credit card bill on time.

Consequences of not paying your Credit Card bill

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking “What’s the worst that could happen if I don’t pay my credit card bill?”, here’s a list of what you should expect if you ever find yourself in that situation:

You would lose your interest free period

This might come as surprise to many, but if you’re late with your credit card re-payments, you’ll find that the company will charge you interest starting from the day you spent on your card i.e. the interest free period would no longer apply because of your late payment. If you weren’t aware of this, you should consider re-reading the terms and conditions of your credit card.

You can say goodbye to introductory interest rates

If you’re one of those people who got their credit card after transferring your balance from an old card in order to take advantage of lower balance transfer rates, then you simply can’t afford to miss a single payment on your credit card bills. If you do, you can say goodbye to those introductory offers you might be looking for!

Credit card companies will usually offer low introductory rates on purchases and balance transfers, but if you miss your payments, the rate would revert back to the original. If you’ve built up a lot of debt, this can cost you hundreds of dollars.

Your credit score will go downhill

The truth is that if you start missing payments on your credit card, things will go downhill very fast. One of the difficulties that missing payments can cause is that it will damage your credit rating. No, scratch that, it will wreck your credit rating! This means that if you’re thinking about getting a home loan, you can forget it. Not to mention, you might have trouble renting and getting any form of credit.

Your credit limit will drop

Another big consequence that you’ll have to suffer if you don’t pay your credit card bills on time is that the bank will essentially punish you by lowering your credit limit. This, of course, makes a lot of sense. If you can’t pay the bank back its dues, then your credit will have to be reduced. Limited credit is a bittersweet thing because it will help you not spend more, but at the same time it will affect your credit utilization ratio.

Your credit utilization ratio is simply the credit that you’re allowed by the bank. For example, if your available credit is $15,000 but your balance is actually $3,000, it means your credit utilization is very low. If your bank reduces your credit limit to, let’s say, $5,000, then your utilization ratio will be higher. As you may know by now, the more credit you use, the more you will damage your credit score, and that’s not something anyone wants to play with!

You’ll have creditors breathing down your neck

One of the most horrible things about debt is that it is relentless, and it won’t let you forget about it. That’s because when you owe people money, they will remind you every chance they get. In this case that means that creditors will not leave you alone. They will call you nonstop to ask how the payments are coming along and eventually they will turn to the law.

Another scary thing about creditors is that they can pass the debt to a debt collection agency. If we know anything about debt collectors is that they are by no means warm and fuzzy. If you fail to make your credit card payments prepare to get hundreds of phone calls and a bunch of red letters. And if you manage to ignore that, a bailiff will most likely show up at your door and take assets away as payment.

Avoid this situation as best as you can!

The more I think about it, the worse it gets. There is absolutely no bright side to it! Credit card payments are not something you can take lightly, and they definitely leave no room for irresponsibility. That being said, debt is not the end of the world. It can be, but if we’re smart we can get out of it with just a couple of bruises and a lot of knowledge.

However, the best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to avoid debt at all costs. Don’t spend more than you have, make your payments on time, and be smart about every single choice that involves money. If you practice good spending habits and responsibility at every turn, you will save yourself a whole lot of trouble, stress, and headaches.

If you are already in debt way above your head, balance transfer credit cards can offer a reprieve to help you dig your way out of debt. Balance transfer cards can offer 0% interest rate on balance transferred for up to 12 months or more, but you still need to make your minimum repayments in order not to incur further debt through high interest rates.

Debt is very tricky. It’s like quicksand, the longer you stay in it, the harder it will be to come back out. If you ever find yourself face to face with debt, you have to get organized as quickly as you can in order to reduce it and eliminate it. Remember that you are not alone and there are a lot of resources that can really help you both understand what are the best strategies to get out of debt and how to manage your money properly and intelligently.