How Long Does It Take to Improve My Credit Score

29th Jul 2024

Improving your credit score might appear daunting, but it's something which is definitely achievable with patience and effort. Understanding the timeline and factors influencing credit score improvement is essential as a first step to making improvements. Let's explore how long it takes to enhance your credit score and go through the steps you can take to speed things up.

How Long Does It Take to Improve Your Credit Score?

Improving your credit score is a gradual process rather than a quick fix. Your credit score is influenced by various factors including your financial situation, income, and whether you have had issues with debt in the past. Generally, significant improvements to your credit score can be seen within six months of consistent effort.

If you don’t know where to start, then don’t panic. Credit referencing is not rocket science and is largely common sense. All you are trying to do is to present yourself as someone who lives within their means, manages their money responsibly and can be trusted to pay bills every month without reminders. There are lots of money advice websites out there which can explain everything there is to know about getting and using credit responsibly and give you more tips about making your money work for you.

Steps to Take to Improve Your Credit Score

There are several factors which might influence the speed at which your credit score improves. These include:

1. Payment History: Timely payments positively impact your score, so if you’ve been disorganised in the past, making sure everything’s paid on time can quickly improve matters.
2. Electoral Registration: Being on the electoral roll instantly boosts your score, so if you’re not already a registered voter, it’s a five-minute job to get listed.
3. Credit History: Building a credit history through responsible borrowing will increase your score, but this isn’t as quick a win as some of the other measures but if you can start to pay off debts and use credit efficiently, it will eventually show in your score.
4. Debt Diversity: Lenders also like to see that you are managing different types of debt regularly. This might include car loans, credit cards or overdrafts.

How Long Do Negatives Stay on my Credit Report?

Negative factors such as missed payments or defaults, remain on your credit report for varying durations, and there isn’t much you can do to get them off your record any sooner than that. The standard times for negatives to remain on your credit report are:

• Loan applications: Up to 12 months
• Late or missed payments: 6-7 years
• Defaults or county court judgments: 6-7 years

You’ll only know about negatives on your credit report if you request a copy of your credit record and check it over. If you find any inaccuracies on your file, you can ask the credit referencing agencies to correct them, but they will ask for proof of why you think they’ve made a mistake rather than simply taking your word for it.