If you don’t use credit or just started building it, chances are you have no credit file or maybe just a thin one — it’s there, but there’s not much to it. That can leave you with a low credit score or no credit score at all, which may make it difficult to get credit when you need it.

It’s irritating to run across a bill and to realize it was due yesterday… or last week. If it’s a credit card bill, you may also have to pay a fee (sometimes, if it’s a rare slip-up, you can get it waived), and it can be especially scary to find an overdue bill if you have applied for credit or plan to in order to make a big purchase, like a house or vehicle. Readers often ask us how late a payment has to be before their creditors report it to the credit bureaus: