Failing to pay your credit card bill on time not only means you'll pay a late fee, it could cost you reward points or miles.

Delinquent customers are not credited with the points or miles they earn that month, and every month, until they catch up. In some cases, those points are lost for good.

Most cardholders are also forbidden from redeeming any of the points or miles in their reward accounts until they're current with payments.

Capital One seems to have the most stringent policy.

If a late fee is charged to any of its Visa or MasterCards, the customer loses all points or miles they may have earned that month.

And once they're gone, they're gone. Paying the bill won't reinstate the rewards.

Nor can delinquent Capital One customers redeem any previously earned points or miles until the account is current.

Bank of America cardholders also forfeit any points they earned during a billing cycle if they're more than 30 days late with a payment.

The same is true for American Express cardholders who miss a payment deadline. (That's been a long-standing policy for all American Express cards except the Blue and Blue Sky cards, and it's being extended to those products in September.)

The big difference is that American Express allows customers to recover forfeited points -- once their account is current -- for a $29 reinstatement fee.

Citi seems to have the most lenient policy. Cardholders that earn Thank You reward points can't have any new Thank You points added to their balance, or redeem merchandise using existing points, until their account is current.

But once Citi receives a cardholder's late payment, all's forgiven and the Thank You points earned that month are added to the account.

The story is much the same with Citi Dividend cards, which offers cash-back rewards.

A late payment means no Dividend Dollars are added to that account and no rebate checks can be requested. Once the account is current, any rewards that cardholders earn while in arrears are added to their accounts.

The rewards program for Citi's AAdvantage cards, which allow customers to earn American Airline miles, has no penalty for late payments.