How Long?

[Anonymous]

Hello, Just needed something to look forward to.  Say I started paying down my balances, and doing other things to fix my credit.  How long would it be before the score started to change? Any points at all.. And how often does the Score Watch thing report? Is the minimum like 30 days?

I recently also had my CL increased, how long does it take to reflect on my CR, and will this change my score at all??

Thanks guys.  I'm trying to be hopeful.  I'm so impatient!

[rudy]

You will see changes as they happen with score watch. It may take 30 days, 1 day or any amount of time. It really depends on how the creditors report. You may not see a jump in your credit score after the changes. Because you might fall in the same range. Ex: you are in the 650-660 credit score. you jump from 651 to 655. You are still in the same range

[haulingthescoreup]

Your scores don't even exist until someone pulls them, and then all they do is reflect what's on your credit reports at that moment. So the sequence is: the creditor reports new info to the credit bureaus; each credit bureau has to post this new info (EX is prompt for me, then TU, and EQ dawdles); then if a score is pulled, it will be based on the new info. There may or may not be a change in score at that point, depending on how big an impact the new info makes.

If you have a credit report that shows the day of the month that each account is updated, you can figure out when all your new balances will have finally posted. When I started doing this, I wrote the dates that each posted over a three-month period to get a feel for the pattern, since the dates vary a little each month. Once you think the last low-balance account has reported, give it 4-5 days afterwards to let EQ do its thing, and then check your scores. So this could well be a month plus a week, depending on your lenders and how long ago you paid.

Sounds like 3 new FICO scores for Christmas! Be sure to use the HOLIDAY25 discount code for 25% off.

[jackg]

My advice is to have as much patience as possible, get a thick book with small type and read it. When that's done, get another one, seriously. The questions you ask can't be answered because everyone's circumstances are different. I'm not being a smart a--! It's a very time consuming process. Think of it this way---how long did it take for your credit to get broken? See? Good Luck