How long does it take to bring up your credit score, pay today, good credit tomorrow?

3 Comments

1. kimpenn09 says:

   September 22, 2011 at 4:40 pm

   No. If you had any delinquent accounts, they would stay on your record for–wait for it–7 years.

   That’s not to say your credit wouldn’t improve in the interim. Credit issuers report to credit agencies every 30-60 days or so. And the further away you are from your debt, the higher your credit score will go. Six months from now, your credit should be drastically improved if you don’t have any more delinquencies. Your score is constantly fluctuating based on how you use credit–not just how much you spend, but how many accounts you open, how late you are with your payments, etc.

   I use a credit monitoring system through Equifax.com. For $7 a month, they text message me every time my score changes.
2. shan merc says:

   September 22, 2011 at 4:44 pm

   i agree w/ everything kimpenn09 said.
   i messed up my credit 5 yrs ago when i didn’t pay one credit card for 2 months and another for 1 month. basically just didn’t pay them. anyways, one went to collections. the other just charged me a big fee…
   i’m telling you this to let you know that if you stop your bad behavior and start good behavior, there IS LIGHT at the end of the tunnel.
   i have a much higher credit score now. it’s almost 700.
   this is my recipe for success: make your payments
   1. EACH MONTH NO MATTER WHAT!!
   2. MAKE MORE THAN THE MIN PAYMENT (this really improves your score. — pay like at least $30 more than your min each mo
   3. DON”T MAX YOUR CREDIT CARDS (don’t have a balance that’s more than 75% of your total credit–for all your credit cards combined)
   4. USE THEM!! (if you have expenses that are set: gas, rent, groceries, whatever… charge them if you can. you would have to buy these things anyways. use the credit card and then MAKE SURE you pay the whole balance at the end of the month!!– creditors love to see activity. it shows that you able to use your credit responsibly)
   5. have patience and just accept that we all make mistakes. baby steps, my friend, baby steps.

   GOOD LUCK!!
3. fukinluckyfuker says:

   September 22, 2011 at 5:18 pm

   One thing that hasn’t been made clear on these answers yet.

   Use your cards, but avoid letting the balance get over 50% of your limit on any card.

   Ideally, have two cards. Use one at a time for a 1-2 month cycle, then alternate. Use a little bit, let it get billed, then pay it off in full, and change cards for at least 1 month. That way, the bureaus are seeing that you are capable of borrowing money and paying it off in full quickly. This is supposed to be quite effective in ramping up your scores.

   Much of your score factors in patterns of payments, so there’s rarely anything you can do to get an immediate rise in scores, but paying off or under 50% on a maxed out credit card can give 20-50 point boosts for people whose scores were low because of that card.