How Often Does Your Credit Score Update – And Why Does It Fluctuate So Much?

Generally, your credit score updates every 30 days. This can fluctuate by a few days, but you can expect it to be updated once per month.

This timeline makes sense since many factors that affect your credit score will change over time. Your payment history can change quite frequently, for instance, but expecting your score to update every time you make a payment isn't realistic.

Here, we explore the when, how, and other details regarding credit score updates.

How often does your credit score get updated?

Let’s get the big one out of the way. In general, your credit score is technically updated every 30 days. Emphasis on the word technically.

In today’s instant gratification world, 30 days may feel glacially slow. After all, you may check your credit score today and get one number, and check again next week and get a different one. So what’s actually happening?

How does your credit score get updated?

The reason why credit scores can vary from one day to the next even though credit scores are supposedly updated every 30 days has to do with the process itself.

Your card issuer tracks everything that you do with your credit cards. Some of it includes (but isn’t limited to):

• Whether you made on-time payments towards your credit accounts
• Your credit utilization ratio
• The length of time you’ve kept your credit accounts
• Whether you opened or applied for any new credit accounts
• Any kind of information that the credit bureau regularly uses to assess your creditworthiness

All of this information is then sent to credit bureaus such as Equifax and TransUnion every 30 days.

However, there’s no specific day on which all card issuers submit their clients’ credit data to credit bureaus. One card issuer may send that data in the second week of the month, another one the last day of the month, etc.

And as that data is processed, your credit score is updated. This is why it’s not a terrible idea to regularly check your credit score with Borrowell or a similar credit reporting service like Credit Karma, specially if you're working hard on improving your score.

Why does my credit score fluctuate?

According to Equifax, a common cause of fluctuation in credit scores can be attributed to making payments on credit accounts. This is because payment history is usually the most significant factor when determining your credit score.

The payments you make on things like credit cards or installment loans will affect your credit score when it’s reported to the credit reporting agencies. This will likely cause changes to your credit score.

In addition, your credit history can affect your current and future credit scores. For example, if you had a late credit payment, this would have an immediate negative effect on your credit score and could show up on your credit report for years.

Even a single late payment could drop your score by over 100 points. But as time goes by, the effects of that late payment will diminish until it’s no longer a factor.

Although it’s not a bad idea to check your credit score via soft credit checks, don’t take those numbers as the absolute truth. These numbers are helpful guidelines that, while reasonably accurate, are not exact.

Only a hard credit check can give you exact numbers. However, hard credit checks do hurt your credit score, so they should only be done when absolutely necessary.

Improving your credit score takes time

Don’t be discouraged if your credit score doesn’t improve as quickly as you hoped or if you see fluctuations. Improving your credit score takes time, patience, and an accumulation of good financial habits.

If your score has gone down a little, it’s not the end of the world. Just focus on your long-term credit score. If you’re trending in the right direction and making good choices, you should be fine.

It would be wise to focus on good financial discipline, such as living below your means, not leaving a credit balance for next month, paying your bills on time, and so on. Focus on the long term, but use the tools at your disposal to keep track of your progress.

FAQ

How often do credit scores get updated?

Technically, your score is updated every 30 days when credit issuers submit their clients’ credit reports to credit bureaus such as Equifax and TransUnion. However, each issuer is different and submits its data at varying times throughout the month.

What day of the month does your credit score update in Canada?

While it does change roughly once per month, there’s no specific day that your credit score updates, partly because information from various financial institutions is reported at different times. This is true for both Equifax and TransUnion.

Can I make my credit score update?

Unfortunately, since you’re not the one submitting your financial details to the credit monitoring bureaus, you can’t force your credit score to update. Instead, your financial activity, like applying for credit or paying debt, is automatically reported.

At what time is the credit score updated?

There’s no specific time or date that your score is updated, since that could even fluctuate between credit monitoring bureaus themselves. It updates roughly once every 30 days, but the exact day and time of each update can't be predicted.