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What Happens If You Miss a Mortgage Payment?
One missed payment can hurt your credit once it's 30 days late, but it usually won't put your home at immediate risk. Your servicer has to try to reach you by phone by day 36, and send written notice about options by day 45.
48 sec · Captions available on the player · Presented by AI-generated presenters, with every line taken from the FreeRateUpdate page it answers.
Source: FreeRateUpdate answer page, Sept. 29, 2026; federal servicing rules
Transcript
This is FreeRateUpdate News. I'm Edmund Ledger. Today's question: what happens if you miss a mortgage payment?
One missed payment can hurt your credit once it's 30 days late, but it usually won't put your home at immediate risk.
Your servicer has to try to reach you by phone by day 36, and send written notice about options by day 45.
Federal rules generally bar starting foreclosure until you're more than 120 days behind, about four missed payments.
Call your servicer as soon as you know a payment will be late. The options tend to narrow the longer a loan goes unpaid.
A late payment can also bring a late fee from your servicer.
I'm Edmund Ledger, for FreeRateUpdate News.
What the charts show
Table, After a missed payment: When: 30 days late, What happens: Can be reported, can lower your score; When: By day 36 / day 45, What happens: Servicer calls / sends options in writing; When: Over 120 days, What happens: Foreclosure can generally start.