How Long Does It Take To Repair My Credit?

If you are struggling with bad credit, repairing your credit is an important decision to help you get your finances back on track. And while you may want to see results immediately, the credit repair process takes some time.

How Do I Improve My Credit?

Your FICO score uses the following factors, with each factor carrying a different weight:

• Payment history: 35% of your FICO score—the single most important factor in determining your creditworthiness—is your payment history, so be sure to always pay your bills on time and work on catching up on any past-due accounts. The later the payment, the more it damages your credit.
• Credit utilization: 30% of your credit score is the amount of debt you owe. Ideally, you want to keep your credit utilization under 30%.
• Credit age: 15% of your FICO score is the length of your credit history, so consider the pros and cons before closing a satisfied credit account.
• New credit: 10% of your score includes inquiries for new credit.
• Types of credit: 10% of your FICO score is your mix of credit, including credit cards, loans, and more.

Step 1: Get A Copy Of Your Credit Reports

Because your credit history is reported to three main credit bureaus, the first step you should take is to get a copy of your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

Due to the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act), you are entitled to one free credit report each year for each of the three bureaus. You can order your credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com. You can also get a free credit report if a lender denied you credit.

Step 2: Review Your Credit Reports for Inaccurate or Outdated Information

Your credit report reflects a detailed history of your credit accounts, both positive and negative. It's essential to check each of your credit reports for any inaccuracies, unverifiable items, or outdated information. Remember, you can only remove inaccurate items. Negative but accurate information must remain on your credit report.

You can dispute negative or inaccurate items from your credit reports, include delinquent items such as late payments, misspellings, and incorrect personal information, through credit repair.

You can either do this on your own or hire a reputable credit repair service to work on your behalf; we recommend using a credit repair company to save you time because they know the ins and outs of credit repair.

Here is how long a negative item can remain on your credit report:

• Bankruptcy: Up to 7 years (Chapter 13 bankruptcy) or 10 years (Chapter 7 bankruptcy)
• Charge-offs: Up to 7 years
• Collections: Up to 7 years
• Foreclosures: Up to 7 years
• Hard inquiries for new credit: Up to 2 years
• Late payments: Up to 7 years
• Settled accounts: Up to 7 years
• Closed accounts: Up to 10 years

Negative items that occurred recently will take some time to fall off your credit report, but if those bad credit items are from years ago, your score can improve much faster.

Step 3: Rebuild Your Credit

Your next move should be to rebuild your credit. There are a few steps you can take to build your credit that include:

• Paying off old debt
• Taking out a credit-builder loan
• Taking out a small personal loan, potentially with a co-signer
• Taking out a store credit card
• Getting a secured credit card
• Asking utility providers and landlords to report on-time payments to credit bureaus

A Timeline Of Credit Repair

The time needed to repair your credit depends on a number of factors:

• The type of negative information on your credit reports -- for example, bankruptcy is more difficult to recover from than a single late payment
• The number of negative marks on your credit reports; as mentioned earlier, credit reports with only a few errors take a shorter amount of time to recover from
• The age of the negative information
• Your current credit rating
• Your final goal for your credit standing
• Your future financial decisions

Below, we outline how long the process of credit repair may take.

Reviewing your credit reports for errors:

Downloading and looking over your credit reports from AnnualCreditReport can take around 1 to 2 hours. If you sign up for a credit repair service, an assessment of your credit could take anywhere from 1 to 3 business days.

Disputing errors with the bureaus:

Once you have your credit reports, you will need to write a dispute letter (or your credit report service will do this step for you). You will also need to collect the proper documentation and/or bank statements to send the bureaus along with your dispute letter. Depending on how organized you are, this step could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. If you're working with a credit repair agency, it will do this for you.

Your first round of disputes:

If you only have a few inaccurate items on your credit report, you may only need one round of disputes to remove them. Credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate a dispute and either keep or remove the item. The bureau will either remove the item in question, keep it, or request more documentation. If you still have more credit repair work to do, you may have to send another round of disputes to remove any more unverifiable items. The speed of the other disputes depends on if you are repairing your credit on your own and how knowledgeable you are on the ins and outs of credit repair or if you enlisted the help of a reputable credit repair service. Generally, the credit repair process takes 3 to 6 months to resolve all disputes.

Rebuilding your credit:

Depending on your current credit standing and future goals, this could take anywhere from a few months to a few years. We believe that improving your finances includes credit repair, investing, monitoring your credit, and saving your funds for a rainy day.

You can turn to our reputable credit repair services for a free consultation or look at more options here.

What factors make up my credit score?

Your FICO score is made up of five factors:

• Payment history: 35%
• Credit utilization: 30%
• Credit age: 15%
• New credit: 10%
• Types of credit: 10%

What negative items can appear on my credit report?

Your credit reports can contain both positive and negative history. Items that negatively impact your credit include:

• Bankruptcies
• Charge-offs
• Collections
• Credit inquiries
• Foreclosures
• Judgments
• Late payments
• Loan defaults
• Past due payments
• Public records
• Repossessions
• Tax liens

What are some steps I can take to improve my credit?

• Consider credit repair and contact a credit repair service
• Always pay your bills on time
• Deal with past due accounts
• Reduce your credit utilization
• Keep old credit accounts open
• Open new credit (but avoid applying for too much new credit)
• Monitor your credit

About The Author

Ashley Davison

Director of Operations, Credit Saint LLC

Ashley is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Credit Saint, previously working as a Logistics Coordinator at Ernst & Young. She is currently working toward an Executive Leadership Certificate from Cornell University.

With a degree in education, she is eager to teach the world everything she knows and learn everything that she doesn’t already know! Ashley is a FICO® certified professional, a Board Certified Credit Consultant, Certified Credit Score Consultant with the Credit Consultants Association of America and holds a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Compliance Certificate.

Articles by Ashley Davison

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