How soon will my credit score improve after my debt is paid off?

I am selling my house (it was an investment property that I am flipping) and using the proceeds to pay off credit card debt that I have incurred while redoing the home. After the house is sold all my cards will be paid off and the only things I will have to make payments on are my car and student loan. I was wondering how long it will take the credit card companies to notify the credit report of their zero balance status? Can I ask the credit card companies to report the paid off status to my credit report immediately? Also should I close most of these cards or close them? How should I decide which credit cards to close and which to keep open to keep a high credit score? ( I have never had a 30 day late on any of my cards) I want to do whatever I can to improve my credit score the most.

Don't waste your time calling the credit card companies request faster reporting. They have a system and are not going to manually process just for you.

Your debt to available credit limit ratio is a big part of your score and paying off all the cards will improve your score. Don't close all the cards as this closes your history and lowers your available credit limit. Keep your oldest major credit cards that do not have an annual fee. You may want to close store charge cards.

about 3-6mths for the credit reporting agencies to get notice from the card companies and change the status of the account balances. yes you can take the paid receipts, make copies and send them to all three credit reporting agencies, that will speed up the process.

Once you pay off a credit card, the companies will report, and most report at the end of the month. Then the bureaus have 30-60 days to update info. The turn around time is usually within a month-to-two months. Leave them open with a zero balance. This improves your net to debt ratio. If you have a lot, and you want to close a couple, then ok, but leave the accounts open that you have had the longest. Credit is such a tricky thing. If you have too much open credit, and you try to get credit for something else, then they may view that ask risking, as a potential for having a lot of debt. Good luck on that, pull a bureau, and see where you are now. Then in a couple months, pull it again, and see how things improved.

The credit card companies will follow their own routine and report the paid off condition of your account. Don't cancel your cards, just keep them with a zero balance since the history of your payments is a part of the credit scoring process and can help you in the long run.

Congratulations on buying real estate. Good choice.