How long do account updates take?

It’s frustrating when you’ve just paid off a credit card or loan and don’t see the change immediately reflected on your report. But don’t panic – this is normal.

The most likely reason is the lender hasn’t updated the credit reference agencies with the latest information yet. This usually happens once a month, and it could take between 4-6 weeks for new information to appear on your report.

You can check to see when the agencies last updated an account by clicking the ‘View’ button next to an account and then clicking the ‘Account Details’ header. This will display each agency and the date they last updated the account, which can help give you a rough idea of when to expect the next one.

Another thing to note is that the credit reference agencies don’t update information at the same time, so you may see one update on the 5th of the month while another doesn’t update until the 31st.

When you click to update your Checkmyfile report, you’re getting a snapshot of what lenders could see if they checked your credit report the same day.