Do credit scores update themselves once purchased?

[Anonymous]

Since we are waiting to close on a home, I have bought my credit score several times over the last month while waiting for my score to be corrected from a mistake that Capital One made.  It was supposed to have been fixed yesterday, but I bought my scores again and they were unchanged.  Do I need to keep buying my score, or will they update themselves?  Just looking to save a few bucks...but I can keep buying it if it will get us into a home sooner.

[athensguy]

When you buy a score, it is generated from the data that is contained in your file at that time.

The first time you get a score after Capital One changes their reporting, the score will reflect that.

[Peach8321]

djr44,

Generally, you won't see much difference between days (or weeks).  I understand being anxious, but I would wait a week or two before pulling again.

As for scores, they are instantaneously generated the moment they are pulled...think of them as ordering a coffee...the ingredients all exist but until you order it, that particular coffee isn't actually there.

If you already have a lender, you could also ask them to (SOFT PULL) your scores...they might be willing and that would save you some money.

Finally, companies usually report changes at the start or end of the month, so the best times to pull are 1-2 weeks into a month to see changes (at least in my experience).

Good luck on buying your house!

[StevenH90]

I am new here, but to my understanding CapOne does not update until there statements for the account are released. But that's to my understanding that most companies are like that? I do know I was approved for my AMEX and Amazon card last week. Pulled my scores today and they have yet to show up... But I am glad I know my base score before they start to report.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Since we are waiting to close on a home, I have bought my credit score several times over the last month while waiting for my score to be corrected from a mistake that Capital One made.  It was supposed to have been fixed yesterday, but I bought my scores again and they were unchanged.  Do I need to keep buying my score, or will they update themselves?  Just looking to save a few bucks...but I can keep buying it if it will get us into a home sooner.

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when you purchase your score on myfico, you are buying a report for that moment in time, and the score that goes with it. it is a snapshot of your credit file at that precise moment, so if the information in your file changes tomorrow, you would have to buy tomorrow's report to see the change.

it takes time for cap1 to report to the bureaus and it takes time for the bureaus to update your credit file, so there is a lag between the moment cap1 agrees to change the report and the time the new information shows up on your report.

pulling your own report will definitely not speed up the process.  stop buying your score so often and sign up for a daily puller (search for the credit monitoring service thread).  once you see the update on your CMS, you can buy your score and see how much the new info helped.  

a call to cap1 customer service (preferably a supervisor with authority) might result in a courtesy update, which means they would manually send info to the bureaus before their automatic update process does it.  some companies do this, some don't.  maybe someone else has experience with cap1 in this regard.  

once cap1 says they have updated the bureaus, a call to each bureau might result in a manual update to your credit file.  find out which bureaus your lender is pulling your report from and target those bureaus.

let me emphasize all the "mights" in this process.  you will have to call in and be very convincing that it is necessary to have these updates expedited.  you may have to call in several times to get the right rep on the phone.  if you think you're not getting anywhere, ask for a supervisor, or just hang up and call back.  you'll almost always get a different rep.

ymmv