How do I recover from a single late payment?

First, pay it immediately and bring the account current, because a payment isn't usually reported as late to the bureaus until it's 30 days past due — so catching it within that window often means no credit damage at all. If it already reported, call the lender and politely ask for a 'goodwill adjustment,' especially if you have a long history of on-time payments; many will remove a single slip as a courtesy. If they won't, the good news is the impact fades: a lone late payment hurts most in the first months and matters less as you keep paying on time, even though it can technically stay on your report for seven years. Set up autopay for at least the minimum so it never happens again. One isolated late payment on an otherwise clean file is recoverable within several months.