When you are monitoring your credit, especially if you are working to improve your credit score, improvements can seem like they take forever. But if you are like many folks who monitor your credit with the multitude of apps and programs available to help you check your credit score daily for free, you might have noticed that your score actually changes quite a bit over short periods of time! Fluctuations of a few points are totally normal, and can be caused by a variety of your daily financial activities.
How Often Does Your Credit Score Change?
It is possible for your credit score to change daily, depending on how often your credit report is updated. Creditors and lenders continuously make updates to your credit report, and every time you check your score, those updates are reflected. This does not necessarily mean that your credit score changes instantly with every activity on your credit accounts. So say if you make an early payment on your credit card, chances are that activity will not be reflected in your credit score the next day. You might have to wait until the end of your billing cycle to see any change.
What Do Credit Score Changes Mean?
Chances are, small fluctuations in your credit score over the course of a few days are not indicative of any substantial movement. Trends and changes over the course of a few weeks or months are what you need to pay attention to.
That being said, if you do notice a sudden drop in your score of more than just a few points, look into it! Negative information from earlier in your billing cycle may have been reported or old information could have dropped off your credit report.
The bottom line is you should monitor credit for big changes, but do not sweat small fluctuations in your score. There are a host of apps you can use to do this, including Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, and Mint. These programs also give you some info about what is impacting your score, and what you can do to improve your score!