So many people often believe that checking your credit score could negatively affect your credit report or hamper your chance of getting financing. This statement is totally incorrect as long as you aquire a valid free credit score. Getting a copy of your own credit score will neither help nor hurt your credit. This “self-disclosure” is seen as a non-event since you are querying for your own personal knowledge and not to lend money to someone or to request a loan. This makes this type of request a non-official check. Furthermore, you could rerun your report every couple weeks and it wouldn’t change your credit score at all. How often you check your score is irrelevant.
Along with self queries there are others that also will not affect your credit score. An example of one of these is an account inquiry by current creditors. Many creditors will pull your file a few times per year to insure that you’re keeping a similar credit risk or raising your credit score. Another inquiry that won’t damage your score is a promotional style inquiry. These are inquires requested by companies that have acquired your personal information without your knowledge and wish to pull your credit report to consider soliciting you for a credit offer or advertising purposes.
Since a “self inquiry” does not count against you, it is a very good idea to run one every month or every couple months. Checking your free credit score every month or so will allow you to see how your credit score is altering and change your lifestyle as needed. It will also allow you check for any anomalies within the report such as showing who recently queried your report and if any collections currently exist. Seeing collections early lets you react appropriately and pay them before they cripple your score.
With no downside to checking your score periodically, it’s definitely something that you should look into doing. Many companies offer very affordable monthly plan letting you monitor your credit score and aid you with fixing problems and building a solid score.
