How Long Will It Take For Me To Improve My Credit?

Your credit score does not constantly update itself, but will only be updated when either you or a firm asks to see it.

How Long Will It Take For Me To Better My Score?

It will depend upon how frequently your financial moves are reported. Your credit score takes into account how much credit you use on your credit cards, how many loans you take out, whether you have repaid your debts, among other factors. 

Each of the companies will report your payments, and those will feed into your updated credit score. If your credit card provider reports your card activity once a month, then those payments will only affect your score when reported. 

How Long Will It Take To Recover My Score After A Dip? 

Following the findings of a FICO study, here are some estimations of how long it will take to recover your score after missing a payment, or other negative hits. 

Assuming you have an average credit score of around 698, if you make a payment one month late, it will take you 9 months to recover your score. If that one month turns into three, 9 months will still – with a bit of luck – see your record recover. If you still have an average score, but declare bankruptcy, you’re looking at a minimum of 5 years recovery time. 

Now, if you’re starting with a stronger credit score of the lower end of the 700s, then a 30 days late payment could damage your score for up to 2.5 years, and 3 years if that becomes 90 days late. Bankruptcy will keep your score down for up to 10 years. 

What Impacts How Long It Will Take? 

We all want to have a strong credit score to our name, but if we all set out to improve our score, it would take us different pockets of time to achieve our goal. Why?

How Long You Have Used Credit: If you are young, or have just entered the world of credit, it will be quicker and easier for you to improve your score. This is because your credit history is shorter, and therefore each financial action carried more weight than if it was at the end of a very long list of credit uses. 

How Strong Your Score Is To Begin With: The stronger your credit score, the easier it is to push it further up. If you are starting at a respectable 600(on a scale of 300 to 850), then the average US score of 698 is closer than if you’re beginning with a score of 550. 

Your Reliability: If you consistently pay back your debts, then you will find it easier to climb the credit ladder. However, many of us struggle to pay back debt. Out of payday loan borrowers, 25% roll over their debt, and that’s usually permitted by lenders. However, once you’ve missed a payment, it is in your interest to pay it back as soon as you can. The quicker you pay it back, the less the negative impact on your credit score. Don’t be fooled into thinking that once you’ve missed it, the damage is done. Your credit score will be hurt more the longer you take to pay your debt back. 

Remember, repayments and credit usage are the two salient factors which impact your credit record. If you work towards using these properly, safely, and reliably, then you should have nothing to worry about.