Always paying your credit card payments late? Some hopeful comments

Who's made some late payments on their credit cards lately? Raise your hand.

If everyone reading this article has kept their hands down, either there are a lot of people out there lying, or a lot of people who don't want to feel like an idiot for raising their hand in front of a computer screen. According toCardTrak, an information portal on credit cards, the percentage of people late on their payments is the highest it's been in three years. In 2007, credit card companies made $18.1 billion dollars in penalty fees (for a little comparison, the year before, they made more than $17 billion in penalty fees.)

Fortunately, there is some hope out for anyone with an increasing history of late fees and decreasing credit score, according to John Ulzheimer. He founded Credit.com and wrote the book with the reassuring title, You're Nothing But a Number, and he said that while Americans' credit scores might be tanking, a credit score, in the end, is truly our friend.