Good news: Credit scores aren't impacted by checking your own credit reports or credit scores. In fact, regularly checking your credit reports and credit scores is an important way to ensure your personal and account information is correct, and may help detect signs of potential identity theft.
AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to get your free annual credit reports. This right is guaranteed by Federal law. You can verify this is the official site by visiting the CFPB's website. Don't be fooled by look-alike sites.
Checking your own credit report or score won't affect your credit scores. It's an example of a soft inquiry—a request for credit info that does not affect credit scores. Experian, TransUnion and Equifax now offer all U.S. consumers free weekly credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com.
Credit monitoring does not hurt your credit score. According to Experian: “If consumers access their own credit reports, it does not have any effect on their credit scores. Reviewing a credit report results in what is called a “soft pull,” or “soft inquiry,” meaning it will only be seen on a personal credit report.
Every year, you're entitled to one free credit report from each of the main credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can access these reports for free at annualcreditreport.com, which is authorized by federal law.
It's important to know that there are 2 types of credit inquiries. Soft inquiries such as viewing your own credit report will not affect your FICO Score. Hard inquiries such as actively applying for a new credit card or mortgage will affect your score.
Making a late payment
Your payment history on loan and credit accounts can play a prominent role in calculating credit scores; depending on the scoring model used, even one late payment on a credit card account or loan can result in a decrease.
Check with your bank
“The earlier you start building your credit history, the better it could be for your credit score.” You can typically check your score via your online account, mobile banking app, or ask a customer service rep if you're unsure whether this is available to you.
While a hard inquiry does impact your credit scores, it typically only causes them to drop by about five points, according to credit-scoring company FICO®. And if you have a good credit history, the impact may be even less.
A 750 credit score is considered excellent on commonly used FICO and VantageScore scales, which range from 300 to 850. The exception is if you are new to credit because a high score isn't always enough. The length of your credit history and how much debt you carry relative to your income also matter.
It's recommended you have a credit score of 620 or higher when you apply for a conventional loan. If your score is below 620, lenders either won't be able to approve your loan or may be required to offer you a higher interest rate, which can result in higher monthly mortgage payments.
Federal law gives you the right to get a free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus. In addition, the three bureaus have permanently extended a program that lets you check your credit report from each once a week for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.
You can improve your credit score by opening accounts that report to the credit bureaus, maintaining low balances, paying your bills on time and limiting how often you apply for new accounts.
You can get a free report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies through AnnualCreditReport.com. You can request all three of your reports at once, or you can space them out over the course of the year.
FICO 8 scores range between 300 and 850. A FICO score of at least 700 is considered a good score. There are also industry-specific versions of credit scores that businesses use. For example, the FICO Bankcard Score 8 is the most widely used score when you apply for a new credit card or a credit-limit increase.
Mail: If you use the Annual Credit Report Request Form or write a letter, your request will be processed and mailed to you within 15 days of receipt. Please allow two to three weeks for delivery.
Credit scores can drop due to a variety of reasons, including late or missed payments, changes to your credit utilization rate, a change in your credit mix, closing older accounts (which may shorten your length of credit history overall), or applying for new credit accounts.
Although ranges vary depending on the credit scoring model, generally credit scores from 580 to 669 are considered fair; 670 to 739 are considered good; 740 to 799 are considered very good; and 800 and up are considered excellent.
For a score with a range between 300 and 850, a credit score of 700 or above is generally considered good. A score of 800 or above on the same range is considered to be excellent. Most consumers have credit scores that fall between 600 and 750. In 2022, the average FICO® Score☉ in the U.S. reached 714.
The primary credit scoring models are FICO® and VantageScore®, and both are equally accurate. Although both are accurate, most lenders are looking at your FICO score when you apply for a loan. There's a lot to learn about credit scores and credit reports and having more than one credit score can get confusing.
Is "credit score" the same as "FICO® score"? Basically, "credit score" and "FICO® score" are all referring to the same thing. A FICO® score is a type of credit scoring model. While different reporting agencies may weigh factors slightly differently, they are all essentially measuring the same thing.
It's possible that you could see your credit scores drop after fulfilling your payment obligations on a loan or credit card debt. Paying off debt might lower your credit scores if removing the debt affects certain factors like your credit mix, the length of your credit history or your credit utilization ratio.
Various weighted factors mean that even with no credit, your credit score could still be low because the length of your credit history or credit mix, for example, could also be low.
Since hard inquiries affect your credit score and what is found may even affect approval, you might be wondering: How many inquiries is too many? The answer differs from lender to lender, but most consider six total inquiries on a report at one time to be too many to gain approval for an additional credit card or loan.