 TITLE: How Does a Short Sale Affect Credit? CONTENT: How to Start Rebuilding Your Credit After a Short Sale\n------------------------------------------------------\nAs with other major derogatory events, it can take a long time for your credit scores to recover from a short sale. It may be several years before your score fully recovers if you previously had a good credit score. Or, you may have to wait the full seven years if you had an excellent score. (People who have higher scores tend to experience larger score drops from new negative information in their credit reports.)\nIn the meantime, similar to what you might want to do after a missed payment, bankruptcy or foreclosure, you can look for ways to rebuild your credit.\n*   **Don't miss loan and credit card payments.** Making your bill payments on time adds positive information to your credit reports, which can help you improve your credit scores. Conversely, late payments typically hurt your scores, so try to always make at least the minimum payment on time on all your accounts, every billing cycle.\n*   **Open new accounts.** If you don't have any loans or credit cards, you may want to open accounts that can help you build credit. Secured cards and credit-builder loans are often good options for people who have poor credit. Depending on your credit, you could also look into good rewards credit cards, including options without annual fees.\n*   **Boost your score.** You can sign up for Experian Boost™† and add utility, cellphone and certain streaming service payments to your Experian credit report. These payments aren't otherwise included on your credit report, and their presence can then help improve your credit scores that are based on your Experian credit report.\n*   **Pay down debts.** Paying down the balances on your revolving accounts, such as credit cards and some lines of credit, can help lower your credit utilization ratio and may quickly improve your credit scores. Paying down installment accounts (auto, student and personal loan balances fall into this category) can also help your credit scores, but it might not be as impactful as lowering your credit utilization ratio.\nIf you're running into trouble with other bills, reach out to your creditors before you miss a payment. Ideally, you'll be offered a different repayment plan or a hardship program that's easier to manage and can help you avoid additional negative marks on your credit. END