Checking your own credit reports, or credit scores based on them, won't have any impact on your credit scores. Learn how you can check your credit report, the difference between a soft inquiry and a hard inquiry, and how inquiries affect your credit score.
Under federal law, you have the right to check your credit reports from all three national credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.
Requests to view your credit reports (or credit scores derived from them) are known as inquiries, and categorized as "hard" or "soft" inquiries according to their potential impact on your credit scores:
Soft Inquiry
When you check your own credit report or request your own credit score, or when a monitoring service you authorize does so, that request is noted on your credit report as a soft inquiry. A soft inquiry never has any impact on your credit scores.
Aside from self checks, other examples of soft inquiries include the checks performed by lenders with whom you have existing accounts (for account management purposes) and credit checks by lenders for purposes of marketing credit products to you.
Hard Inquiry
A hard inquiry, by contrast, is added to your credit file when a lender requests your credit report or a score based on it for purposes of processing a credit application, and it can affect your credit scores.
Credit scoring systems such as the FICO® Score☉ and VantageScore® typically lower your scores slightly in response to each hard inquiry. These reductions are typically by less than five points and short-lived; as long as you keep up with timely debt payments, your scores will usually rebound within a few months.
Why Do Inquiries Have an Impact on Credit Scores?
The appearance of a hard inquiry on your credit report can be of concern to lenders because it could indicate you've taken on new debt that hasn't yet been added to your credit report. Credit scoring systems acknowledge that uncertainty by deducting a few points from your scores. Scores typically rebound within a few months if you keep up with on-time payments on all your accounts, old and new.
The Bottom Line
It's wise to review your credit reports regularly to spot and correct inaccuracies and to check for unauthorized activity that could be a sign of credit fraud or identity theft. Doing so will never hurt your credit score and, in fact, checking your Experian credit report can help you protect your credit and promote long-term credit score improvement.
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
AnnualCreditReport.com
You can request annual credit reports for free from each of the 3 major reporting agencies—Experian, Equifax® and TransUnion®—online via www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.
Yes. Along with TransUnion and Equifax, Experian is recognized by financial institutions around the world as a safe, authoritative and trustworthy credit reporting agency.
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.
Checking your credit score on your own, which is a soft credit check or inquiry, doesn't hurt your credit score. But when a creditor or lender runs a credit check, that's often a hard credit check, which could affect your credit score.
What causes a bad credit score? Your credit score reflects how lenders see you. If you have a low credit score, there may be information on your credit report that lenders see negatively. For example, late payments may make lenders think you won't pay them on time, so your score will be lower to reflect this.
The main disadvantage of Experian is that, unlike FICO, it is rarely used as a stand-alone tool to make credit decisions. Even lenders that review credit reports in detail rather than go off a borrower's numerical score often look at results from all three bureaus, not just Experian.
Experian and FICO aren't the same thing. Experian is a credit reporting agency that also offers consumer credit monitoring products. FICO is a scoring model. A service called myFICO offers similar consumer credit monitoring products to Experian.
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.
Use a credit score service or free credit scoring site.
You're entitled to a free copy of your credit reports every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com. You can also create a myEquifax account to get six free Equifax credit reports each year.
As someone with a 650 credit score, you are firmly in the “fair” territory of credit. You can usually qualify for financial products like a mortgage or car loan, but you will likely pay higher interest rates than someone with a better credit score. The "good" credit range starts at 690.
Checking your credit score will not have an affect on it. Requesting a copy of your credit report or checking your credit score is known as a “soft inquiry.” Soft inquiries are not visible to potential lenders when they view your credit report; however, they may remain visible to you on your report for 12 to 24 months.
You can check your credit score as often as you want without hurting your credit, and it's a good idea to do so regularly. At the very minimum, it's a good idea to check before applying for credit, whether it's a home loan, auto loan, credit card or something else.
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.
Three major credit reporting agencies provide credit reports: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. 123 These may be the safest routes to obtaining your credit history, which ultimately affects your personal credit score.
' The answer is no. You can check your own credit score and credit report as many times as you like – it will never have a negative impact on your score. Comparing credit offers with Experian. By searching for things like a credit card or loan, you're not actually applying for them but simply asking for a quote.
Highlights: While older models of credit scores used to go as high as 900, you can no longer achieve a 900 credit score. The highest score you can receive today is 850. Anything above 800 is considered an excellent credit score.
Three major credit reporting agencies provide credit reports: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. 123 These may be the safest routes to obtaining your credit history, which ultimately affects your personal credit score.
Is Your Information Secure with Experian? Experian prides itself on providing exceptional service without compromising the personal information of its customers. The privacy policy outlines how information is used and how the credit reporting agency complies with both legal requirements and consumers' expectations.
Experian vs. Credit Karma: Which is more accurate for your credit score? You may be surprised to know that the simple answer is that both are accurate. Read on to find out what's different between the two companies, how they get your credit score, and why you have more than one credit score to begin with.
Introduction: My name is Mr. See Jast, I am a open, jolly, gorgeous, courageous, inexpensive, friendly, homely person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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