Raising Credit Score?

Question

How long after you clear your debt does your credit score go up?

Answer 1

takes like 7 years! credit is all a scam and it sucks so bad. But i think the official numbers is like 1 point every other year of good credit or something, and -2 points for every time you get bad credit

Answer 2

It all depends on the individual.

Clearing your debt is a great start. Your credit score is basically a measure of how big a risk you are considered for a loan, based on the information in your credit report. The most important factor in a score is payment history. If you have missed payments (30 days delinquent, even once, and it will show up) on your credit report, it will impact your score, and the more recent those missed payments are, the more impact they will have. So if you were past due on a credit card bill two months ago, it will have a much bigger impact than if the same thing happened five years ago. You're rewarded for consistently paying your bills, basically, and recent behavior is more important than what you did a few years ago.

Certain things stay on your credit report for specific periods of time:
- inquiries (e.g. credit check when you apply for a loan): 2 years
- missed payments (delinquencies): 7 years
- public record items: 7 years
- bankruptcies: 10 years
- unpaid tax liens: 15 years

Again, the older the event, the less impact it has. Bankruptcies and unpaid tax liens obviously will have a more severe impact than the odd delinquency. Only inquiries related to extending your credit affect your score; you can check your own credit every day if you like, and it won't hurt. Same goes for employer inquiries.

Check your credit report (http://www.annualcreditreport.com gives you one free report per bureau per year). If there are inaccuracies, dispute them; otherwise, keep paying your bills on time and keep your card accounts open but low or zero in balance, especially if you've had them for a long time. A long payment history is positive (shows stability) and a low balance but a high limit gives you a good balance-to-limit ratio, which is also seen as positive (shows that you can manage your debt wisely).

One other thing - there are a load of "credit scores". Each bureau has its own system, plus various financial institutions also have their own scores for specific applications. Generally speaking, though, what improves one will improve them all. You can never go wrong with paying on time and using credit wisely.

Sorry that there is no absolute answer. Hopefully that helps in some way.

Answer 3

If you make payments and clear all your debt, your score will go up by a little bit. (It will go up more if the accounts stay open. It could decrease if the accounts are closed and were old since it will make the debt look more recent and recent activity counts more than past history.) The accounts will stay on your report (as paid) for 7 years though. After the accounts fall off, your score will increase as long as you open new accounts and keep them in good standing. If you don't open any new accounts, once all your bad debt clears off the report, you won't have a credit history so your score will be low again.

Answer 4

It can take a while. Be aware that every time someone checks your credit score, it has a negative impact. By that I mean that if you go from car dealer to car dealer and they each run a credit report on you, it becomes noted as "too many inquiries". It took a long time to get a bad credit score, it takes a lot longer to clean it up. Best of luck to you!

Answer 5

It will start improving immediately.

If you paid old debts, like collections or charge offs, it may take longer to heal.

If that is the case, I would reccommend disputing the negative items and adding new positive credit.


Here are two good sources of information:

1. Building Credit: http://www.expert-credit-advice.com/building_credit.htm

2. Free Credit repair kit: http://www.expert-credit-advice.com/free_credit_repair.htm

Answer 6

It depends, FICO scoring is a mystery, but all things considered your score usually goes up 5-6 points a month. It usually takes 18 months - 2 years of good payment history for your score to go up 100 points.