How Fast Does Your Credit Score Change?

Often, we are asked "how fast does a credit score change?" This especially comes up when you're working on improving your score after past credit issues or simply because you are new to building credit. Credit scores don't change overnight, but they do change. Here are some important things to know about credit scores:

Your score can change whenever your credit report changes.

Your credit report can change for a variety of reasons, most notably, if you have late payments, which is also called delinquency, if you add a new debt or pay off a debt. Also, the age of those credit lines is taken into consideration.

Your score probably won't change much from one month to the next.

Lenders report credit data at the end of each month, so the information transmitted may or may not have changed in a given month, depending on when you may have paid off a debt or add a new debt. For example, if you pay off a loan on the 31st of the month, and the lender transmits on the 30th of the month, the pay off may not be reflected on your credit report until the following month.

In a given three month period, only 1 out of 4 people will have a 20 point change in their credit score.

Again, this is tied back primarily to your activity. A point change will likely occur if you have several missed payments, added a new debt or paid off a debt. A bankruptcy will most definitely cause your credit report to change.

Bankruptcies and other public records or collections can have a major impact on your score and it takes time to recover.

Bankruptcies can cause your credit score to drop dramatically. The same can be said for collections, that is, when you are 60 or more days late on a debt payment. That is why it is important to make sure you make all of your payments on time. Automatic payment is a very easy way to ensure your payments are made on time, and it can be done through electronic bill pay. Simply missing a payment can also impact your score. However, you can recover quickly if you pay your account current, provided your credit report has substance.