Late payment penalty calculator: what you owe today and when

For a revolving credit card account the regulatory milestone is charge-off at 180 days past due, after which the balance is typically sold or assigned to a collection agency within weeks. Before that, the account is reported delinquent at 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 days. Everything between those two facts is the creditor's own policy, which is why this tool tags the sale as typical timing rather than as a rule.

No. The debt still exists and can still be reported and requested; what expires is the creditor's ability to win a lawsuit over it. And the protection is not automatic — a time-barred debt sued upon still becomes a judgment if you do not show up and raise the defense. Worse, in many states a single partial payment, or even a written acknowledgment, restarts the clock from zero, which is exactly why collectors of very old debt push for "just twenty dollars today".

A charge-off is an accounting event on the creditor's side: after roughly 180 days of delinquency the balance is written off as a loss. You still owe every cent. The practical consequences are that the account is usually sold at a fraction of face value, which is what makes settlement offers realistic, and that a charge-off is one of the most damaging single entries on a credit report.

Under federal law, the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings and the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed thirty times the federal minimum wage. Several states are more protective — Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and South Carolina do not permit wage garnishment for most consumer debts at all, and New York caps it at 10% of gross. Child support, taxes and student loans follow separate, higher limits.

Because of payment allocation. Fees and accrued interest are satisfied before principal, so a payment smaller than the interest accrued since the last one never reaches the balance, and the next month's interest is calculated on the same figure. Enter your actual payment in the allocation calculator on this page and it will show the split line by line.

Seven years and 180 days from the date of first delinquency — the first missed payment that was never brought current. That date does not reset when the debt is sold, and it does not reset when you pay: paying changes the status to "paid" but does not remove the history. A collector who re-ages a debt to a later date is violating the law, and it is worth checking your report for exactly that.

It is what a court enters when a defendant does not respond to a summons. Most consumer debt lawsuits end this way rather than on the merits, because people assume the case is hopeless and stay home. Filing an answer costs little, forces the plaintiff to actually prove the debt and its chain of ownership, and is frequently where old purchased debt collapses.

Within thirty days of a collector's first communication you can demand written verification, and collection must pause until it arrives. Portfolios of old debt change hands with thin documentation, so the request is often the fastest way to find out whether the collector can actually prove what it claims.

Yes. IRS failure-to-pay is 0.5% of the unpaid tax per month, capped at 25%, with interest compounding daily on top. The escalation runs through the balance-due notice, the final notice of intent to levy, a federal tax lien and finally a levy — and unlike ordinary creditors, the IRS does not need a court judgment to take wages or bank funds. Collection authority generally expires ten years from assessment.

From a published fifty-state survey for open-ended accounts, and the tool names the date it was checked. Treat them as a starting point rather than a verdict: courts in several states disagree about whether a credit card is an open account or a written contract, and the applicable period can differ by years depending on that classification.

No. It is a calculation from general rules and typical timing. Your contract, your state and the facts of your case can change both the dates and the amounts. The tool is meant to show you where to look and what to ask; decisions about your own case belong with a lawyer.