When and how often your credit scores update is based in part on information in your credit reports. And your reports are updated when lenders send information about your accounts to the three major credit bureaus—Equifax®, Experian® and TransUnion®.
Keep reading to learn more about when your credit scores might change and get tips for improving your scores and monitoring your credit.
Key takeaways
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Credit scores can update when the three major credit bureaus receive new account information from creditors.
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Lenders typically update account information with bureaus every 30-45 days.
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How much your score can change depends on lots of factors, including who provided the information and the type of credit-scoring model used.
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Sign up todayHow often do credit scores update?
Lenders usually report updated information every 30-45 days, so it’s possible you might receive an updated credit score each month. But every lender has its own reporting schedule and policies.
It’s also possible your scores may update more frequently—sometimes multiple times a month. This can vary depending on how many lenders you have and when they send their updates.
What day of the month does your credit score update?
Generally speaking, there is no set date each month when you can expect your credit scores to be updated. It all depends on when your lender sends information to the credit bureaus, when those bureaus update their reports and when credit scoring companies use those reports to update their scores.
What is rapid rescoring?
There may be situations when you want to speed up the process of getting your credit scores updated. Rapid rescoring is a process lenders might use to have new repayment details added to your credit report.
The process is typically related to mortgages. By doing things like paying down credit card balances and having the changes reflected on credit reports, a borrower might improve their eligibility or get access to better loan terms.
Rapid rescoring has to be requested through a lender. Otherwise, you can expect the timeline for a credit score update to be the same as usual, even if you’ve taken steps to pay off debts.
How much can I expect my score to change?
It can be difficult to predict how—or by how much—your credit scores could change. That’s because you have many different credit scores. They come from multiple credit scoring companies—like FICO® and VantageScore®—using different formulas to calculate scores. And each credit-scoring company has several different versions of its credit scoring models too.
Formulas might use information from just one credit report or a combination of different reports. Then, each formula might assign different levels of importance to that information.
How much your scores change depends on the information your lenders send to the credit bureaus. Examples of the types of information they share may include:
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When you’ve applied for a new account
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When you’ve opened or closed an account
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Your account balance
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Your credit limit or the amount of a loan
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The timeliness of your payments
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When an account goes into collections
This information is directly related to the factors that affect your credit scores, such as your credit history, payment history, credit utilization ratio and credit mix.
How do I see my most up-to-date credit scores?
There are a few places you can go to view your credit scores, including your credit card issuer, credit bureaus, credit-scoring companies, credit counselors and online tools.
CreditWise from Capital One lets you monitor your TransUnion credit report and updates your VantageScore 3.0 credit score as often as daily for free anytime—without hurting your credit scores. Plus, it’s free for everyone, even if you aren’t a Capital One cardholder.
You can also use the CreditWise Simulator to learn how your score might go up or down if you do things like open a new credit card, pay off a balance or increase your credit limit.
Credit score updates FAQ
Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about updates to credit scores:
How long does it take for a credit score to update after paying off debt?
No matter what changes have occurred on your accounts, your credit scores won’t reflect those changes until the lender reports the information to the credit bureaus. This typically happens every 30-45 days, but it varies by lender. Once a credit bureau receives information from a lender, your credit reports—and credit scores—could be updated right away.
Does your credit score change every 7 days?
There’s no way to say for sure how frequently your credit scores will change. As previously mentioned, it all comes down to when your lenders are sending information to the credit bureaus.
How often credit scores update in a nutshell
Your credit scores change based on the information in your credit reports—among other factors. You can’t control how often they update. Whether you’re trying to maintain or improve your credit scores, it’s important to monitor your credit regularly. And CreditWise is one way to do that without hurting your credit scores. You can also get free copies of your credit reports by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com.
Over time, monitoring your credit might give you a deeper understanding of the factors influencing your scores. You’ll have a better idea of where you stand financially. And you can use that information to take the next steps toward your financial goals.
