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

Quick summary

How Citi credit card billing works

Citi (Citibank) issues a wide range of consumer credit cards including Citi Double Cash, Citi Custom Cash, Citi Premier, Citi Rewards+, and many co-brand cards (Costco Anywhere Visa, American Airlines AAdvantage, Best Buy, etc.). All Citi consumer credit cards follow the same general non-payment rules.

• Statement date: Generated monthly with minimum payment and balance details
• Due date: Typically ~21–25 days after the statement date (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: Citi Card Agreements^[2] ; Citi Double Cash Card Agreement^[1] : "The late fee is $30 and, if you make another Late Payment within the next 6 Billing Periods the late fee will be $41."

Late fees

Citi applies a late fee of up to $41 when the minimum payment is not received by the due date. The Citi Double Cash agreement sets the first one lower: "The late fee is $30 and, if you make another Late Payment within the next 6 Billing Periods the late fee will be $41. The amount of your late fee will never be higher than your Minimum Payment Due."^[1]

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

Penalty APR

If your account becomes seriously past due, Citi may apply a penalty APR to your existing balance. The penalty APR can be up to 29.99% and remains in effect for at least 6 months of on-time payments before Citi reviews it.

Credit reporting

What Citi says: Citi's card agreement says: "We report Account information in your name, as well as information about you to Consumer Reporting Agencies, on a monthly basis." It lists late payments, returned payments and overlimit amounts among what the reports can include.^[1]

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,^[3] 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.^[4]

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."^{[5]: 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.^[6]: (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."^{[5]: 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.^[3] 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."^{[7]: (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."^[4] 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."^[8] 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."^{[9]: (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".^{[6]: (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.^{[9]: (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."^{[5]: 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."^[10]: (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".^{[11]: (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.^[12]: (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),^{[13]: (a)(1)} and the company that reported the item must investigate and then modify, delete or block anything it finds inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable.^[6]: (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 Citi'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: Penalty APR may be applied; account may be restricted
3. ~90–120 days past due: Account may be closed by Citi
4. ~180 days past due: Account charged off; the debt can then be sold or passed to a debt collector

Frequently asked questions

Will Citi waive a late fee? Yes. Citi customer service has discretion to waive a single late fee, especially for customers with a strong payment history. Calling promptly after a missed payment improves your chances.

Does Citi offer hardship programs? Yes. Citi offers various assistance programs for cardholders facing financial hardship, including the Citi Assist program, temporary minimum payment reductions, fee waivers, and interest rate reductions. Call the number on the back of your card to discuss options.

What about my Costco Anywhere Visa or other Citi co-brand cards? Co-brand cards issued by Citi follow the same rules as standard Citi credit cards for late fees, credit reporting, and account closure. The co-brand rewards program is separate from the basic credit card terms.

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