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If you can鈥檛 pay a bill, it might seem better to send in what you can than to send nothing at all.

That鈥檚 probably a waste of money. Your creditor may cash the check, but that doesn鈥檛 mean you鈥檙e not considered late.

鈥淒on鈥檛 assume that any payment you make will buy you more time or prevent damage to聽your credit scores,鈥� NerdWallet columnist Liz Weston says. 鈥淵ou need to talk to the creditor. See if you can work out a payment arrangement that will keep you from being reported as late to the credit bureaus and having the account turned over to collections.鈥�

If you are considering making a partial payment:

• Contact the creditor beforehand.聽Ask it聽to accept a partial payment without late fees, to let you skip a payment, or to change the due date. Ask if the payment you鈥檙e considering聽will be reported as late. Find out if the creditor聽offers hardship programs.
• Make arrangements to pay the shortfall.聽If you don鈥檛 catch up, it鈥檚 very likely that you鈥檒l be reported late every month that the deficiency lingers.
• Don鈥檛 delay the inevitable.聽If your hardship is not temporary, partial payments are not going to help. Explore聽debt relief options, Weston advises. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to put this off and continue to throw good money after bad.鈥�

Lastly, be strategic about your bills if you can鈥檛 pay them all in full. Necessities such as rent and food and perhaps transportation are higher priority than, say, student loans or credit cards or debt collectors.

Here鈥檚 a look at how much breathing room you have on different types of debt:

Bev O鈥橲hea is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email:boshea@nerdwallet.com. Twitter:聽@BeverlyOShea.

This article first appeared at NerdWallet.