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Getting credit report updated quickly after debts are paid

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Credit Advice

Topics addressed on January 21, 2009:

Getting credit report updated quickly after debts are paid

Dear Max,

I'm paying off all of my husband's debt rather than settling. I'm capable of paying the balances in full and am getting confirmation of “paid in full” for theses accounts. Is there a way to speed up the process of having the credit bureaus update his credit file and score so that it immediately reflects that his payments have been made for these debts? May I contact the agencies directly to provide them with this information?

- MDW

Dear MDW,

There really is no way an individual consumer can update accounts. They must be updated by the holder of the debt.

So, your husband’s creditors must update the balances with Experian. That typically happens at the end of the billing cycle in which the payment was received. Usually, that’s within about 30 days. It may happen sooner depending on when the lender updates its records.

If you are applying for a new loan and need accounts updated faster, some companies will respond to a special request for updates, commonly referred to as a “rapid rescore” service. They pay an additional fee to have someone call and manually update data so that it can be rescored immediately with the new information in the history.

One note of caution, if you are settling old debts that have missed payments, the history still will reflect that negative history. Any missed payments will have a negative impact on your ability to get credit.

However, if you are paying the debts in full to eliminate interest payments and lower your outstanding debt, it will no doubt help your risk position when you apply for joint credit.

Thanks for asking.

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