You know your credit score is a key part of having a strong financial future. It helps you get great interest rates for loans, lower finance charges on your credit card, and so much more. With so much riding on a credit score, we’re answering the question, “How often should I check my credit score?”
How Often Should I Check My Credit Score?
You should check your credit score at least once a year, unless you have a reason for reviewing it for other reasons. Each credit bureau offers you one free credit report for the year, so definitely take advantage of that. Checking your score annually allows you to make sure the information on each of the three reports is correct. The bureaus do not share information with each other. Which means it is always possible that one of the credit reports could have a mistake even if the others do not.
Reasons to check your credit score more often
If you apply for credit for something such as a mortgage or a car loan, lenders are going to pull your report to check your score. Doing so will help them determine whether or not they can give you the loan and at what interest rate they can give it to you. In this case, it’s not a bad idea to check your credit score on a regular basis. Now, when it comes time to apply for the loan, there will be no surprises. Soft inquiries don’t hurt your credit, so you don’t have to worry about pulling your credit report too often.
Another reason to check your score more often would be if you’re trying to improve a bad credit score. By checking your score regularly, you can see how you’re doing and see what is helping you improve your score the most so you know what you need to keep doing. You can sign up for one of these credit monitoring services to help you check in on your credit report.
It is very important to monitor your score on a regular basis to make sure nothing has drastically changed. Especially when you think you may have been a victim of identity theft or had your information compromised in a data breach. If you are a victim of identity theft, it’s important to know how identity theft affects your credit score. It is also important to know the steps to take if you’ve been the victim of identity theft.
If you’ve recently divorced, you will want to make sure your ex-spouse is making their share of the payments or, in general, is not hurting your credit. Also, if you’re in the job market, employers might check your credit as a part of the employment process.
How often is too often?
Checking your credit score every day might be a little too often. Although it is possible to do so, it will only potentially lead to obsessing over it. You will never see any major changes overnight. Besides, lenders understand that small, insignificant changes will happen daily as things update. They know the important ones happen over longer periods of time. Daily checks also won’t help you see the trends in your score. Giving it more time to have significant changes will allow you to see any trends. Small changes are only meaningful in a credit score when you are right on the line between the good and bad sides of the credit score range. Otherwise, if you are sitting comfortably within a range, small changes won’t have much impact.
Have you ever asked, “How often should I check my credit score?” Is there anything else you’d like to know? Give us a call today at 1-866-991-4885!
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