How often is a person's credit report updated?

Question

Is it updated in real-time or is it only updated weekly/monthly, etc?

Answer 1

It is updated only as often as information is reported to it from any of your creditors. This can be daily if you have a lot of creditors, or only a few times a month if you do not have many creditors.

As soon as the credit reporting agency(Equifax, TransUnion, Experian) receive the updated information you are able to see it.

Answer 2

It's actually updated every 90 days. It would be impossible for the credit bureaus to update everyone's information daily, weekly or monthly.
Here's how it works:
Each month, your creditors send in a report to the bureaus about your payment history. The electronic information is saved on a large "tape" at the bureaus' main office. After three months, that "tape" is loaded into the main database. All the information is read, downloaded and updated. There is so much information that it does take at least a month or so for the bureaus' machines to read everything. In the meantime, a fresh "tape" is put in its place to record the next three months' worth of information. As far as the big three are concerned, (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian), they are not necesairaly on the same 90-day schedule. So one could change the main tape in April, the other in June and the other in September if that's how it all shakes out.

Answer 3

The different pieces of information are updated at different times. The report is updated in real time to report what the creditors have told the credit bureau, but the creditors do not report to the credit bureau in real time. Typically, each creditor reports every 1-2 months, but this varies.

Answer 4

It is updated as new information is being reported. I would say around every 30-60 days.

Answer 5

Darn, OC1999 beat me to it again.

Great answer.