According to the report, 37% of Americans have paid late fees in the last 12 months.

Many consumers find it difficult to pay their bills.

To this point, 37% of Americans have been accused of being late on a bill in the past 12 months. according to to the new NerdWallet report.

Credit card late fees were the most common, with 21% of survey respondents incurring at least one. Others faced fines for late payments for utilities (10%) and rent (8%). In early April, NerdWallet surveyed 2,061 US adults.

“Late fees are just one of the consequences of missing payments,” said Sarah Ratner, travel and credit card expert at NerdWallet.

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While you may be hit with a late payment fee as soon as you miss a credit card or loan payment due, it typically doesn’t show up as a black mark on your credit report until you’re 30 days late, said Matt Schultz, chief credit officer. LendingTree Analyst.

And if you’re 30 days or more late, then the situation becomes more serious, experts say. Late payments can also lead to more serious consequences, such as utility shutoffs. Some consequences may be immediate, e.g. car return.

“If you know you’re going through tough financial times, it’s definitely best to get the ball rolling and not wait,” Schultz said.

Here’s how to limit the impact of late payments and work with creditors if certain life events, such as a layoff or financial hardship, affect your ability to pay.

If you’re starting to fall behind on your regular monthly payments or are expecting to, it’s best to “talk directly with your creditors before you get into trouble,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

“That’s when you have the most options. The further behind you are, the fewer options there are,” he said.

Reporting your problem as early as possible may help. If your bill is due on the last day of the month, don’t wait to contact your service provider the day before, said LendingTree’s Schultz.

If you contact them early, he says, you’ll have more flexibility to explain your situation and negotiate a solution.

“Any time you can walk into one of these situations and offer a solution … it can go a long way toward making the conversation go smoother,” Schultz said.

Cardholders can ask their card company to waive late fees the first time they miss a payment, Schultz writes in his book Ask Questions, Save Money, Earn More: How to Take Control of Your Financial Life.

But keep in mind that “the more often it happens, the less likely it is” that the lender will offer a waiver, McBride said.

“If you’ve fallen behind on a payment once and there’s a good chance you’ll pay again soon due to financial problems, let the lender know,” Schultz said.

“It’s one thing to go to the lender every two months and say, ‘Hey, I’m late on this, can you waive this?’ It’s a whole other thing to say, ‘Hey, I’m late because I have a medical emergency or I lost my job,’” he said.

“If you find that your payments are becoming more difficult to keep up due to an unexpected life event, such as a layoff, most lenders offer hardship programs that temporarily lower interest rates and waive fees,” Schultz wrote in his book.

While the details may vary, “the main thing is to take part” in these opportunities because they are “designed to help you get back on your feet,” McBride explained.

“If you run away from the problem and fall further and further behind, it limits your options even more,” he said.

Even one late payment can have a significant impact on your credit score; This could drop your score is up to 100 points, depending on other elements of your credit history.

If you’ve made a one-time mistake, you can contact your lender and ask to remove the late payment from your credit report, experts say. While this is possible under certain circumstances, lenders are generally not fans of this tactic as it makes the data unreliable for future credit transactions.

“Your credit report is just a collection of data that shows how well you pay your debts,” Schultz said. If lenders begin to cherry-pick what happens in the report, the data becomes unreliable and does not help lenders make decisions.

“The primary consumers of credit reports are not consumers, but businesses,” Schultz said, since the reports are created to help businesses make lending decisions.

While this is rare, if you are in an unusual situation and have a “spotless record,” you may be able to go to the lender and explain what happened. For example: If you’re late on a payment due to a natural disaster, it can’t hurt to ask.

“Strange life circumstances happen to everyone,” he said.