How long does it take to make a credit score go up?

[trainwreck]

I just checked my FICO score ( i guess the # i had before "586" was a plus score from experian).
My FICO score from Equifax is 620. How long will it take to get that up. What is the minimum # to get without a cosigner? I've heard 640, 680 and 700. So which is true? There is absolutely no way for me to get a cosigner.

[Yale College Inferno]

For me it took about a year and a half to go from a 697 to a 741. I haven't checked it in almost a year since hitting 740 though.

[Yale College Inferno]

Motivated by your post, I checked again today and I'm at 760, two years after being at 697. My score would probably be a few points higher except I'm currently carrying about $1000 of debt on a 0% APR account to take advantage of the interest-free offer, even though I could pay the full amount immediately if I took a big chunk out of my bank account.

[sck]

It took me a while to dig out of the hole, but it really can vary.

For me, I was in the low 500s. I had seriously screwed credit, and couldn't get a loan to save my life. I got a car loan with a cosigner , and within 3-4 years, I've got a score that varies between 680 and 700, usually hovering in the high 680s, even with 2K in credit card debt and some old things hovering on the report.

Im aiming to pay the debt off before I start law school in 07 (hopefully by the end of this year.)