Re: How long does it take for credit scores to change?
Typically, three months. If you plan on doing something major, like buy a house, check your credit records three months before you start applying for loans. It is possible to do it faster, but it's a giant pain. I also noticed that it tends to take recent activity (good or bad) about three months to make it onto a credit record. You'd think it'd be faster, but it's not.
Once a month, a major credit issuing company will produce a giant electronic file and send it to the credit reporting company. Many times they send it via snail mail. After the credit reporting company receives the file, they take the file and (manually) import it into their database. Then the reporting companies produce a file of their own and send it to another company (electronically) to calculate the FICO score. The FICO score is calculated (which takes time because there are millions of records) and then sent it back to the credit reporting companies. The credit reporting companies then sell the information back to the credit issuing companies.
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