Rebuilding credit is a gradual process that won’t be done overnight. But how long does it take to increase credit score? What needs to happen? Our car loan team explains what you need to know about the time it takes to rebuild credit score.
Before you begin to rebuild your credit, you first need to know what it is. Check your credit report with TransUnion or Equifax to get your score. You’re entitled to one free credit report per year, per credit bureau, so check once with one and check again in six months’ time with the other.
Then you know where you are and how much work you need to do.
How Long Does it Take to Increase Credit Score?
The answer to how long it takes to increase credit score depends a lot on your current score. The actionable answer is that you can begin rebuilding credit straight away and begin to see improvements typically within 3 months.
Continue improving your score steadily over time and you could go from subprime credit to good credit within 18-24 months. If you have bad credit, it might take longer. Again, it depends entirely on the score. The lower the score, the longer it will take to recover.
The main takeaway here is that no matter how low the score right now, you can begin rebuilding it right away.
How to Start Rebuilding Credit Score
Rebuilding credit is a process. A series of steps you can take that will gradually improve your financial situation as well as your credit score.
- It begins with a credit check which you have already done.
- Next comes checking your credit report for errors. Have them corrected by the organization that made the error. If they don’t cooperate, talk to the credit bureaus.
- Next comes budgeting. Set up a basic home budget so you know exactly what you have coming in and going out.
- Outline all your debt so you know exactly what you owe and to whom. It’s easy to pile debt letters in a drawer and forget about them, but don’t. The only way to get out from under them is to face them.
- Talk to everyone you owe money to and try to negotiate your debt down. Use a debt counsellor if you need one, otherwise, talk to your creditors and see if you can come to some kind of arrangement.
- Set up automatic payments for all your debts to avoid missed payments.
That all handles the debt you have and should prevent things getting worse. To improve your credit score, do the following:
- Pay down as much debt as you can
- Arrange to pay the highest interest debt first and prioritize any extra cash you have to paying that down
- Use a credit card for regular expenses and make sure automatic payments are set up for the minimum payment. Don’t depend on the minimum payment. Make sure to clear as much, or all of the balance, every month to avoid interest.
Managing debt isn’t easy and nobody will pretend it is. What managing debt is, is a process, the same as improving your credit score. Fortunately, manage it and begin regular payments for everything and your credit score will improve as a result.
Thank you for reading our article, hopefully this answered your questions! For any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us here.