If you miss a payment on your loan, the first thing that happens is the lender will likely contact you to ask you to make a payment. You may be faced with a late payment fee.

Some lenders will give you a grace period. If your lender doesn’t, the credit reporting agencies will also be notified that you were late with a payment.

For the most part, late payments are not reported to a credit reporting agency until you are at least 30 days past due. If you continue to not make payments, the lender may send your account to a third-party collections agency.

Once you’ve been passed on to a collections agency, they will try to get you to make a payment. If you’re severely passed due, your items may be repossessed. If you don’t have a secured loan, they may try to sue you.