What happens if I don't pay my Chase credit card?

Quick summary

How Chase credit card billing works

Chase issues many credit cards (Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire, Chase Slate, co-brand cards like Amazon Prime Visa, Southwest, United, etc.). All Chase consumer credit cards follow the same general non-payment rules.

• Statement date: Your statement is generated monthly with a minimum payment and full balance
• Due date: "a minimum of 21 days after the close of each billing cycle"^{[1] [2]} (this is your grace period for new purchases, if you pay the full statement balance)
• Minimum payment: Required by the due date to avoid a late fee. A payment that falls 30 or more days behind can also be reported to the credit bureaus as late (see Credit reporting below)

Source: Chase Sample Cardmember Agreements^[3]

Late fees

Chase's sample cardmember agreements list the late fee as "Up to $40" and say: "If any payment is late, we may charge you a late fee." The first one is capped lower: "A single violation of each type will not exceed $29. However, if another violation of the same type occurs within six monthly billing periods we will charge up to the maximum fee in the table above."^{[1] [2]}

• First late payment: up to $29
• Another late payment within six billing periods: up to $40
• The late fee "will not exceed the related minimum payment that was due"

The exact fees are disclosed on your cardmember agreement and your monthly statement.

Penalty APR

Chase's agreements set a penalty APR of "Up to 29.99%" and apply it in two steps:^{[1] [2]}

• Missed minimum payment, paid within 60 days: Chase "may apply the Penalty APR" to new transactions.
• Minimum payment not received within 60 days: the penalty APR "will apply to all existing balances on your account and new transactions."
• Getting it removed: "If you make six consecutive minimum payments when due beginning with your first payment due after we apply the Penalty APR, then the Penalty APR will no longer apply." Otherwise it "could remain in effect indefinitely."

The penalty APR raises the interest you pay on the remaining balance.

Credit reporting

What Chase says: Chase's cardmember agreement says: "We may also provide information about you and your account to credit reporting agencies and others."^[2]

The agreement doesn't give a day-by-day schedule. The usual pattern comes from two things explained below: the bureaus' payment-status codes start at 30 days late and step up in 30-day increments,^[4] and the federal bank charge-off policy, which covers banks and thrifts, expects an open-end account such as a credit card to be charged off once it is 180 days past due.^[5]

What federal law actually sets

Reporting to the credit bureaus is optional. The CFPB puts it plainly: "Reporting to credit bureaus and other consumer reporting agencies by creditors is voluntary and historically has been. Not all creditors report information about their borrowers."^{[6]: p. 15} The Fair Credit Reporting Act's rules for the companies that do report cover accuracy, disputes and dates. They don't set a minimum number of days late before an account can be reported.^[7]: (a)

The "30 days late" figure you see everywhere comes from the data format, not from a law. Most furnishers send data to the bureaus in Metro 2, which reports "the level of delinquency such as 30-59 days past due, 60-89 days past due, and up to 180 days or more past due."^{[6]: pp. 3, 16} Experian's list of payment-status codes has no code for anything less than 30 days late: the late codes start at "Account 30 days past due date" and go up in 30-day steps to 180.^[4] So a payment 10 or 20 days late has no late code to be reported under, though a late fee can still apply.

A third-party debt collector can't report a debt until it has either spoken to you about it in person or by phone, or mailed or electronically sent you a message about it and waited "a reasonable period of time to receive a notice of undeliverability."^{[8]: (a)(1)}

Charge-off

A charge-off is the lender writing the balance off its books as a loss. It isn't the lender giving up: the federal bank policy that sets charge-off timing says the write-off "does not mean that the asset has absolutely no recovery or salvage value."^[5] That policy also sets the timing, for banks and thrifts only: "Closed-end retail loans that become past due 120 cumulative days and open-end retail loans that become past due 180 cumulative days from the contractual due date should be classified loss and charged off." Closed-end means a loan with a fixed schedule, such as an installment loan; open-end means a revolving line, such as a credit card. Credit unions are outside it. Their regulator, the NCUA, "does not plan to adopt the Uniform Policy at this time."^[9] It doesn't apply to phone, cable, streaming, insurance or utility companies either, because none of them is a bank. When one of those companies writes off a balance, the timing is its own.

How long it can stay on a report

For an account placed for collection or charged off, the Fair Credit Reporting Act's seven-year limit doesn't start on the day you fell behind. It starts 180 days later: the seven years begin "upon the expiration of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the commencement of the delinquency which immediately preceded the collection activity, charge to profit and loss, or similar action."^{[10]: (c)(1)} That makes it about seven and a half years from the first missed payment. Paying the balance later doesn't restart or shorten that clock. Whoever reports a collection or charge-off must also tell the bureau "the month and year of the commencement of the delinquency", within 90 days of reporting it, and a collector who later reports the same account complies by reporting "the same date of delinquency as that provided by the creditor".^{[7]: (a)(5)} A late payment that never goes to collection or charge-off falls under a separate catch-all, "any other adverse item of information", which also runs seven years but names no start date.^{[10]: (a)(5)}

Direct reporting vs. collections

A company can report an account it still owns, or it can hand or sell the account to a collection agency, which then reports under its own name. The two can show up as separate items on your report for the same bill, and "consumers generally are not required to be notified when debt is sold or assigned to a collection agency."^{[6]: p. 30} Which of the two you're dealing with decides which rights apply. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act covers people collecting debts owed to someone else, and it excludes a creditor's own staff "while, in the name of the creditor, collecting debts for such creditor." A creditor that collects under a different name is covered, though: the law "includes any creditor who, in the process of collecting his own debts, uses any name other than his own which would indicate that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect such debts."^[11]: (6)

If the account reaches collections

A debt collector must send you validation information (what you owe, to whom, and how to dispute it) in its first communication or "within five days of that initial communication".^{[12]: (a)(1)} If you dispute the debt in writing within 30 days, the collector "shall cease collection of the debt, or any disputed portion thereof, until the debt collector obtains verification of the debt" and mails it to you.^[13]: (b) Disputing the credit report itself is a separate process. A bureau that gets your dispute must, "free of charge, conduct a reasonable reinvestigation" within 30 days (up to 45 if you send more information during that time),^{[14]: (a)(1)} and the company that reported the item must investigate and then modify, delete or block anything it finds inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable.^[7]: (b)

This section describes federal law and industry practice in general terms. It doesn't cover state law, which can add protections, and it isn't legal advice. It describes a company's own policy only where that company is quoted above. See the disclaimer.

Account actions for non-payment

The milestones below follow the same 30/60/90/180-day industry convention as the reporting timeline above, not a schedule disclosed in Chase's cardmember agreement:

1. ~30 days past due: the late fee has already applied since the missed due date; the payment can now be reported to the credit bureaus as 30 days late
2. ~60 days past due: the penalty APR can now reach your existing balance, not just new charges (see above); account may be restricted (no new charges)
3. ~90–120 days past due: Account may be closed by Chase
4. ~180 days past due: Account charged off; the debt can then be sold or passed to a debt collector

After charge-off, you still owe the debt. The collector can pursue payment and may sue. Chase's charge-off is a separate action from referring the debt to collections.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get Chase to remove a late fee? Chase customer service has discretion to waive a single late fee, especially for customers with a strong payment history. Calling promptly after the missed payment improves your chances.

Will Chase remove a late payment from my credit report? You can ask Chase to remove a 30-day late from your credit report. This is called a "goodwill adjustment", and it is possible but not guaranteed. Success is more likely if it was a one-time slip and you have a long history of on-time payments. Make the request in writing for the best chance.

What is a Chase hardship program? Chase offers temporary hardship programs that may reduce interest rate, waive late fees, or reduce minimum payments for customers facing genuine financial hardship. Call the number on the back of your card to discuss options.

Source checked September 2026. This page is not affiliated with or endorsed by JPMorgan Chase. See our disclaimer.