.svg)
Lots of factors influence how long it takes to build credit. Generally, you need at least six months for a FICO® score and roughly a month for a VantageScore. But reaching a score that’s good enough to unlock better financial opportunities can be a lengthy process that’s different for everyone.
This guide gives you realistic timelines for the credit-building journey. You’ll also learn what influences your credit score, why length of credit history matters, and practical ways to speed up the credit-building process.
How Credit Bureaus Calculate Credit Scores
The big three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) work out your credit score based on the information in your credit report. This includes how you borrow, spend, and repay money over time. Each scoring model uses a slightly different formula, but most rely on five core factors that help lenders evaluate your personal level of credit risk.
Here are the five main factors that make up your FICO score, according to Experian:
- Payment history: Consistent on-time credit card and loan repayments help build credit, while missed payments, collections, and bankruptcies can significantly hurt your score.
- Credit utilization ratio: This is how much debt you’re carrying compared to your available credit. A lower credit utilization ratio shows lenders you’re not overly reliant on borrowed money. According to Equifax, a credit utilization ratio of under 30% is ideal, and the lower the better.
- Length of credit history: Lenders like to see an established credit history, which is why older accounts can strengthen your profile over time. It’s tough to say how much is enough, but Experian states that the longer your credit history is, the better it is for your score.
- Credit mix: Responsibly managing different kinds of credit, like credit cards, auto loans, and mortgages, demonstrates you can handle various repayment structures.
- New credit inquiries: Applying for several new accounts in a short period can raise red flags with lenders. Each hard inquiry may lower your score temporarily.
VantageScore also works out credit scores using these factors, but rather than using fixed percentage breakdowns, the model gives them a weighting from “less influential” to “highly influential.”
Here’s an at-a-glance view of the five factors and the weighting each model gives them. We’ve also included some dos and don’ts to consider when trying to build your score.
Realistic Timelines for Building Credit
How long it takes to build credit varies based on a host of factors. Understanding common scenarios, as well as key credit milestones and reporting timelines, can help you take control of your credit journey.
How Long Does It Take To Get a Credit Score?
FICO’s scoring algorithm needs at least six months of activity on an open account to generate a reliable number. If you’re trying to build credit from scratch, consider seeing if a lender will accept VantageScore. While lenders don’t rely on this model as much, it establishes your first credit score in as little as one month — provided you’ve reported at least one account to the major credit bureaus within the last two years.
How Long Does It Take To Improve a Credit Score?
How long it takes to raise your credit score varies based on several factors. According to TransUnion, your score will change whenever a lender or credit service adds or deletes information from your credit report. You can’t report this information yourself (bureaus only accept data from approved credit bodies), but you can turn to third-party services to send it for you.
There’s no set time for when your score updates. Lenders report to credit bureaus on different schedules, so sometimes changes appear seemingly out of the blue. Insights from Equifax reveal that paying down balances or lowering your credit utilization ratio can sometimes influence your score.
If you’ve started making changes but haven’t seen a big swing in your score, remember that long-term patterns matter. One good month helps, but several good months in a row will really shift your trajectory.
How Long Does It Take To Rebuild Credit?
Setbacks don’t define your credit history forever. Here’s how long late payments and bankruptcies impact your score:
- Late payments: Credit bureaus remove late payments from reports after seven years. Fortunately, the financial weight of these setbacks will diminish much sooner. Since algorithms favor recent behavior, the negative impact of a missed payment lessens over time. It’s also worth remembering that if you pay within 30 days of the due date, late payments usually won’t appear on your report at all.
- Bankruptcies: Chapter 13 bankruptcies remain on your report for seven years, while Chapter 7 bankruptcies stick around for 10 years.
Practical Ways To Build Credit Faster
While there’s no shortcut to building a strong credit history, several tactics can speed the process up.
Get a Secured Credit Card
With a secured credit card, you make a refundable cash deposit that sets your credit limit. You then use the card for small purchases and pay the balance in full each month. It’s an effective way to build credit, and because the deposit lowers the lender’s risk, secured cards are relatively easy to get. To make the most of this option, select an issuer that reports to all three major credit bureaus.
Keep Your Utilization Rate Low
Your credit utilization rate is a calculation that shows how much credit you’re using compared to what you have available. For example, if you have $10,000 in available credit and you’re using $3,000 of it, your credit utilization rate would be 30%. TransUnion suggests ideally staying at 30% or less to optimize your credit score.
Report Your Rent Payments
Many renters don’t realize that reporting their rent to credit bureaus can boost their credit score. But landlords aren’t creditors, which means they don’t usually send rent payment reports. According to TransUnion’s Rent Payment Reporting survey, only 13% of consumers report their rent payments.
Rent reporting solutions, like those offered by Flex, deliver notice of your on-time payments to one or more of the credit bureaus. This can help you build credit history over time. Before you sign up for a service, make sure you understand exactly which payments it reports. Flex Rent only sends notice of on-time payments, but others report all activity, meaning late or missed payments can negatively affect your credit score.
Become an Authorized User
When you become an authorized user on someone else’s credit card, you add their payment history to your credit report. If a trusted family member or spouse has a credit card in good standing, their responsible use can boost your score, potentially helping you pass a rental credit check or even lower future interest rates.
Avoid Unnecessary Hard Inquiries
When you apply for credit, lenders perform a hard inquiry into your credit report that can temporarily lower your credit score. Importantly, soft inquiries don’t affect your credit score at all.
To protect your credit score, avoid multiple credit applications at once unless you are rate shopping for a single type of credit (e.g., a car loan). According to Experian, credit bureaus score multiple rate-shopping inquiries as single inquiries as long as they occur within 14 or 45 days, depending on the FICO model they use.
Turn Rent into Credit History with Flex Rent
Rent is likely the largest payment you make each month. So why not let it work for you? Flex Rent splits your rent payment into two separate charges. Flex reports your on-time rent payments to one or more credit bureaus (included with your paid Flex Membership, with no additional charge for the rent reporting service), helping you build a positive credit history without any extra effort.
Regardless of whether you’re starting from scratch, trying to rent with bad credit, or completely rebuilding your credit history, Flex Rent helps you create a positive payment history without taking on new debt. You simply pay your rent on time and build credit in the process.
Ready to turn your biggest monthly bill into a credit-building asset? Learn how Flex Rent works, and get started today.
FAQ
What Happens if I Miss a Flex Payment?
Your first monthly payment to Flex Rent means your full rent amount will be delivered. If you miss your second payment to Flex Rent, pay the full balance by 11:59 PM ET on the last day of that month.Failure to do so may result in loss of service for the following month and closure of your Flex credit line. Your landlord may also charge you late fees.
What are “excellent,” “good,” and “fair” credit score ranges?
What counts as a good score depends on the creditor and the credit scoring model they use. As a benchmark, Experian provides the following classifications for base FICO scores:
- 300–579: Poor
- 580–669: Fair
- 670–739: Good
- 740–799: Very good
- 800–850: Exceptional
How Long Does It Take To Go from Poor To Good Credit?
There’s no fixed timeline. It depends on your starting credit history, the negative items on your credit report, and the habits you build moving forward. Some people see meaningful improvement within several months, while rebuilding after a major setback like bankruptcy can take years.
What Builds Credit Faster, a Credit Card or a Loan?
Credit cards and loans can both build credit. Credit cards often do so faster since they update frequently and influence credit utilization. Loans impact credit scores more slowly. They contribute by diversifying credit mix and showing consistent payments over time.
What Actions Can Help Improve a Credit Score in 30–60 Days?
Paying down balances, lowering credit utilization, and correcting errors on your credit report can improve your score relatively quickly. But remember, results will vary depending on your overall credit profile and how quickly lenders report updates to credit bureaus.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
