Bit of an update - I spoke to Egg over the phone yesterday, and they told me 3 months.

I was extremely confused about that, so just to make sure I emailed them, and was told that it's actually one month, though the credit agencies can take a further month to update from their side (which I'm not so sure about).

I don't know about HSBC, but I've been in a similar situation with Egg - I had £2k on my CC for less than a month, just for work expenses.

They updated my credit file lightening fast when I had to pay £2k for my flights abroad, but having paid it off today I've been told it can take 3 months (!!!) for them to update my credit record! I was just about to apply for a mortgage too - given this, I might not bother for a bit.

I'm also going to cancel my Egg card immediately - I'm not going to make this mistake again.

FTB09

Agree with Jalexas' comments

Two Questions

1. How quickly will my credit history be updated with the credit bureaus? About a month after statement.

2. Will this improve my credit score overnight? No, scores are gradually updated over a period of time.

It is good that you are being pro-active in sorting out your finances. However, I think you will need to continue this effort if you wish to avoid potential difficulties in the future. Loans and credit cards are not a bad thing, but you should keep these to a minimum. Having a £5k balance on your credit card shows that you like to spend more money than you earn. If you do that while you are paying back a mortgage, you need to think about the consequences. Debts can quickly spiral out of control. You need to think about setting a tough budget to stick to, which you keep under periodic review.

In regard to your current mortgage application, you should be aware that further credit checks will be carried out by the relevant mortgage centre. If the recent changes to your credit record could affect the success of your application, you should be ready to provide details of these recent changes if required. I have seen other posts where people have failed credit checks, after mortgage agreed in principle by mortgage advisor. If this happens, don't forget you can always appeal against the mortgage centres decision, by contacting them with the information.

I hope all goes well. Good luck.

Huckster

firsttimebuyer09:

1. How quickly will my credit history be updated with the credit bureaus?

2. Will this improve my credit score overnight?

Congratulations on being pro-active.

Perhaps you will get a better answer by asking the CRAs, but I think you should allow a month after receiving a closing statement, then check your credit report.

Regarding your credit score, based on what you have said you should already have a good credit score. However one thing which will not improve overnight is the fact that you previously had a £5000 credit card balance, unless you were paying significantly more than the minimum payment.

I would advise keeping the loan and instead further reducing the credit card balance (and limit to what you really need).

However I have seen reference to credit card lenders preferring to see that the ratio of used credit to available credit is around 30% so it's not always a good idea to close cards and reduce limits.

Loan and credit card status, how quickly can you update your own credit files?

I'm just about to apply for my first mortgage and have canceled two credit cards with zero balances on my credit file and I'm just about to write of my loan which has around £1300 remaining on it and reduce my credit card balance with my bank from £5000 to £2000, As you can see all in all that will leave me with a debt £2000 cc debt with HSBC, never been behind on any payments and now will have only two credit account my bank and cc with them.

Two Questions

1. How quickly will my credit history be updated with the credit bureaus?

2. Will this improve my credit score overnight?