Paying child support is necessary in order to maintain good credit. When someone is paying child support on time, it is better to keep paying. Paying won’t help to increase your credit score. It is considered, and supposed to be a duty, more than anything. Therefore, it is always advisable to pay on time.
In case you don’t pay on time, your credit report will worsen. There are three cases. The first one is when child support is paid directly to ex-spouse. In that case, the ex-spouse needs to report delinquency. Then, action is usually taken by the agency that has to report it to the authorities concerned.
The second case is when the child support is paid to an agency, which sends it to the ex-spouse. These agencies may take in the support once a month, or once in few months. In any case, the agency will report any lapse in child support payments immediately after the due date. The third case is when the agencies report the matter after a 30 day period. In both case, once reported, the credit report gets worsened. One missed or late payment can reduce credit score by 20 or 30. Therefore, it is advisable not to miss it.
Sometimes, it is advisable to make partial payments then full payments. It shows to the court and the authorities that one tried to pay, but circumstances stopped him or her from doing so. In this case there is high chance of leniency, and in any case, the credit score won’t go too far down.
Also, it is possible to intimate the authorities or the ex-spouse about the conditions, and non-payment of child support for a particular period for the same. In some cases, leniency is possible. In any case, the resultant downfall in credit score won’t be that much as in case of when the lapse is not intimidated.
Child support and credit score can have only one relation. It is better to pay child support for the goodness of one’s children as well as credit score, which can go down very much in case of non-payment.