Article originally published August 29th, 2012. Updated October 29th, 2018.

The emails usually come in the form of a slightly panicked plea, often from individuals who have just used Credit.com’s Free Credit Report Card for the first time. They’ve seen something that they either didn’t expect or think is wrong, or they think their credit scores should be higher.

“How long will it take my credit report to be updated after I pay off a credit card/settle a collection account/get the IRS to remove a tax lien etc.?” The writers of those emails will sometimes go on to explain that they are trying to get a mortgage, auto loan, or some other type of loan, and want to make sure their latest credit report information is considered.

So, How Often Does Your Credit Report Change?

Like so many things in life, your credit report can change in the blink of an eye.

“Right now it’s 11:40 my time,” said Rod Griffin, director of public relations for Experian, when I interviewed him for this story. “Let’s say a lender requested your credit report right now. If you apply for credit (again) in an hour your credit report could be different,” he says, referring to the inquiry that would have been generated when the first lender accessed my credit information.

“Credit reports can change as often as every day if there is new information provided to the credit bureaus,” says Barry Paperno, community director for Credit.com.

If you want to be technical about it, you don’t really have a credit report on file with the credit reporting agencies, to begin with. Explains Griffin: “We have information from each of the lenders, and we go out to our databases and compile information from those databases when a credit report is requested. Your credit report represents a snapshot of your credit history at any given point in time.”

That means that the information is available in the credit reporting agencies’ (CRAs) databases at the time a credit report is requested is the information that will be reported. “You don’t have a credit report until you apply for credit and it’s requested,” Griffin says.

But it’s not like checking your online bank account and seeing the debit card purchase you made a few minutes ago in your running balance. “It’s not real time,” says Griffin.

While lenders often supply information to the CRAs on a daily basis, that doesn’t mean your account information is updated that frequently. “Lenders may have millions of customers, and they don’t update all of their information at the same time,” Griffin points out. He goes onto add that many lenders report account information around the close of the customer’s billing cycle.

But it’s not just information that is added to credit reports that cause them to change. Information also is removed or suppressed in the CRAs’ databases. Certain types of credit information must be removed when required under federal or state law, for example. “We’re also constantly tracking dates in case information needs to be removed because it’s too old. For example, Chapter 13 bankruptcy will automatically be removed seven years from the filing date,” Griffin says. You don’t have to ask the CRAs to remove information that should no longer be reported. It should happen automatically.

And just as credit reports can change at any time, so can credit scores. There’s a common perception that a “credit score is calculated, stored on a shelf somewhere, and changed periodically,” says Paperno. Instead, it is calculated when it is requested, based on the information from a CRA that is available at that time.

Does this change how you should view your credit report? Not really. You’ll still want to make sure you stay on top of your credit information, so you can challenge mistakes if necessary. To do that:

Check Your Credit Reports

At least once a year, get your free credit reports and check that they are accurate and complete. (As we mentioned earlier, you can also get your credit score and a snapshot of your credit report using Credit.com’s free Credit Report Card.)

Give Yourself Time

Check your reports 3–6 months before applying for a major loan like a mortgage or auto loan, recommends Griffin. Doing so will give you time for your credit report to be corrected and updated if you do find mistakes.

Be Patient

It may take 30–45 days or so for updated information to appear on credit reports requested by you or a lender, due to the reporting process. If you’ve recently paid off a credit card with a high balance, for example, it may take a little time to see the lower balance reported.

What Kind of Information is Reported?

Depending on the lender, they may be reporting back to the three major credit bureaus at least once every thirty days. However, you may find that other lenders may be reporting to the bureaus less frequently.

So, when they report, what are they reporting?

Late Payments: this is one of the biggest components of your credit report. One missed or late payment can actually stay on your credit report for up to seven years from the date of the missed payment. However, you don’t usually get reported for this until the account is at least thirty days past due.

New Credit Accounts: it can take some time for a new credit account to show up on your credit report. This new information will typically show up between one and two months of opening the new account, and you will see a hard inquiry prior to the new account showing up.

How Can I Speed up the Credit Report Changes?

If you are about to apply for a mortgage and want to speed up the process of your credit report change, rapid rescoring is one way you can do so. A rapid rescore involves getting proof that doing so will better your chances at an improved or reduced interest rate. However, the lender will have to make this request, and they also have to pay for the service.

If you had recently paid off a big account and know that your credit score would have improved significantly, and you can’t wait the thirty to sixty days for it to show up, then it never hurts to ask a lender if they would consider a rapid rescoring, so you can get the better rate.