Do you have a question about consumer credit? You may find an immediate answer by using the search engine. If you can't find what you're looking for, please fill out the form, being as specific as possible.
Please note: The Ask Experian team cannot respond to each question individually. However, if your question is of interest to a wide audience of consumers, the Experian team will include it in a future column.
Our policies
The information contained in this column if for educational purposes only and is not legal advice.
You should consult your own attorney or seek specific advice from a legal professional regarding
your particular situation.
Please understand that Experian policies change over time. Column responses reflect Experian policy at the time of writing. While maintained for your information, archived responses may not reflect current Experian policy.
Credit Advice
Topics addressed on June 23, 2010:
You can’t improve your credit “all at once”
Dear Experian,
How can I improve my credit all at once?
- MGO
Dear MGO,
The direct answer is you can’t do anything that will cause your credit to go from bad to great overnight. Any kind of rehabilitation takes time.
Remember, your credit report is a credit history. It gives lenders and other businesses insight into how you manage your credit over long periods of time. Bringing all of your payments current and paying off debts likely will help, but you will need to continue to make all of your payments on time and use your credit cards while keeping your balances low to demonstrate that you have taken control of your credit.
Just how long it will take to restore a strong credit history depends on how severe your past problems were. The more severe the issues and the longer they lasted, the longer it will take to restore your credit history. The good news is that it can be done.
Negative information doesn’t last forever. You can find details about when information is deleted in past columns.
Thanks for asking.
- The "Ask Experian" team