The companies notify the credit bureaus

Financial institutions update your account information (balance, payment history, status) once a month. It’s done electronically and in most cases, there is not a way to ask them to update it sooner. If you are applying for a loan and need something immediately, the bank should be able to fax you or the new creditor a credit reference letter which gives basic information about your loan including the current balance.

The company you owed the money to would report it as paid in full. This could take a week or two to show up on your report though.

Waiting for the companies to do it takes too long. Write a letter to the 3 credit bureaus, informing them that you’ve paid the account, include copy of canceled check/money order, letter from company saying you’ve paid it, whatever you have. Tell them you want it updated immediately. They won’t use your proof but they will notify the company that you say you’ve paid it. Then they’ll update it. Most companies are good at reporting it, but some really don’t care, once they’ve gotten money from you they don’t care if your credit gets fixed or not. I’m not sure where you live but the 3 major bureaus are Transunion,Experian, and Equifax. I live in Ohio and we don’t use Equifax instead we use CSC Credit it’s a subsidiary of Equifax. You can actually go one Equifax website and put in your zip code and it will let you know if you need to contact them or CSC.