Dear RBN,

It is very difficult to raise credit scores quickly. The only way in which you could expect to see significant improvement overnight is if negative information is being reported inaccurately and is deleted as a result of a dispute.

Credit scores are not part of your credit report. Instead, credit scoring is a separate process used to evaluate the information in your credit report at the moment it is requested by a lender. So, your credit history is “reevaluated” each time it is requested and the lender either asks that a credit score be calculated or calculates a score after receiving the report.

Credit scores look at information as it exists at the moment they are applied to your credit report. The risk they measure is driven by how you have managed credit over a long period of time.

If a person were looking at your credit history, they would want to know not only that you paid your bills today, but also that you have a record of paying your bills on time over months or years. Credit scores look at the same things.

Paying your debts off today doesn’t necessarily mean you will continue to do so tomorrow, especially if you have a history of not paying your bills on time. For credit scores to improve, you must build a history of good credit management that shows you have learned from your past mistakes and have changed your behavior.

That simply can’t happen overnight.

There is a common misperception that a credit score is part of your credit report and that it ticks like a clock continually moving up or down, changing by the minute or the hour.

That is not true. Instead, lenders select the scoring models they will use for their application process and obtain credit scores only when you apply for credit. So, if it has been five years since you last applied for credit, it’s quite possible that there has been no new score calculated for five years.

Thanks for asking.