If you’re new to building your credit score, you’re probably asking yourself a few questions. How often does your credit score change? How do you build your credit over the long-haul? What factors most influence your credit report? Fortunately, MoneyLion can help you answer these questions and improve your financial responsibility, too.
What is your credit score?
It’s worth noting that not everyone has a credit score. Some people are “credit invisible.” But for many, building credit is an essential part of engaging in the modern economic system.
Simply put, your credit score reflects how creditworthy you are. The more creditworthy you are, the more likely a creditor will lend you more money at better interest rates. Your creditworthiness is rated on a numeric scale from 300 to 850, with a score of 670 or higher considered “good” credit.
Factors that impact your credit score
Several factors go into generating your credit score at any given time, and not all factors are weighted equally. Your credit score may also change depending on the credit model used, as both the FICO® and VantageScore® models calculate your score in different ways. That said, both models account for the same five basic factors.
In the FICO® credit model:
- Your payment history is responsible for 35% of your score.
- Credit utilization accounts for 30% of your score.
- The age of your credit is responsible for 15% of your score.
- Your credit mix accounts for 10% of your score.
- New credit activity, like a credit application, accounts for 10% of your score.
Meanwhile, in the VantageScore® 4.0 credit model:
- Your total credit usage is “extremely influential.”
- Your credit mix and experience are “highly influential.”
- Your payment history is “moderately influential.”
- The age of your credit history and new accounts are “less influential.”
Together, all of these factors comprise your credit score, which is an essential component in dictating your credit standing.
How often does your credit report update?
Your credit score is a numerical reflection of the data that comprises your credit report. In essence, this is a list of the information above that affects your creditworthiness and measures your financial responsibility. Your report updates as you put in credit applications, use credit, and pay down your balances.
According to TransUnion, your credit reports update when lenders provide new information to the three leading credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. This can happen daily, weekly, or monthly. On average, creditors report to the bureaus every 30 to 45 days.
As your credit report updates, the information that feeds into it may change your scores drastically, or it may not. For example, if you have a history of on-time payments, continuing that pattern won’t raise your score by 50 points overnight. But paying down your credit cards by 50% might cause your score to increase in a noticeable way.
How often does your credit score change?
As a general rule, you can expect your credit score to update at least once a month as your creditors report to the credit bureaus. That said, it’s also possible for your credit score to change daily or weekly, especially if you have a lot of credit activity.
For example, if you have a mortgage, two car loans, and three credit cards, your score will change more often than if you only have one credit card and live with your parents.
Variations in your credit score
It’s possible for your credit score to vary day to day – this is normal, and typically not cause for concern. Small actions such as buying groceries with your credit card or paying down your bill by $100 may make your credit score fluctuate.
It’s also possible for your credit score to change across the three credit bureaus. This, too, is a normal occurrence, commonly caused by creditors sending out the same updated credit information at different times. For instance, the bank that services your car loan might report all credit information to Experian at the start of the month, Equifax in the middle, and TransUnion at the end.
Other factors such as whether a creditor uses the FICO® Score vs VantageScore® credit model or errors on your credit report may impact your credit score, too.
How often does rapid rescoring change your credit score?
When we consider how often your credit score changes, we typically don’t account for rapid rescoring. But for those on the edge of a lender’s credit requirements, rapid rescoring can make all the difference in getting your credit application approved.
For example, if you’ve recently paid off all your credit cards, but your lender hasn’t reported the change yet, you can request your credit to push the information through. In some cases, this may result in your report—and thus, your credit score—changing faster than usual, hence the term rapid rescoring.
But rapid rescoring comes with some limitations. For one, you can’t request a rapid rescore from the credit bureaus. Your lender has to help you, and they may charge a fee for the service. Plus, a rapid rescore won’t fix prior mistakes or erase negative information.
Raise your credit score with MoneyLion Credit Builder!
So, how often does your credit score change? The answer: it varies, but sometimes, not often enough.
If you’re in need of a quick credit boost, a MoneyLion Credit Builder Plus membership may be able to help. For only $19.99 per month, you could access up to $1,000 in competitive-rate installments and potential boost your credit with regular payments. More than half our members raised their score by up to 27 points within 60 days!
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