How to check your credit score responsibly

Your credit score is one of the most important tools you have to prove your creditworthiness to prospective lenders. Your score reflects your previous credit activity and how trustworthy other lenders have deemed you—so if you want to apply for new credit, it’s wise to get your score as high as possible.

But credit scores are also notoriously mysterious, and you’ve probably heard that just checking your credit score can damage it. So how, exactly, do you check your credit score responsibly? Here’s what you need to know, along with a few other FAQs about your credit report.

How do I check my credit score?

Every year, you can get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and Transunion — from annualcreditreport.com. You can request your scores from all three credit reporting agencies at once, or you can spread out your requests throughout the year to see how your report reflects changes in your spending habits.

You can also check your credit score through a number of credit monitoring services, like Credit Karma and Experian, which offer both free and paid options. Many major banks and credit card companies also offer similar services, so you can regularly check your FICO score for free.

Will checking my credit score hurt my credit?

It doesn’t hurt your credit score to check it yourself. However, when you make a credit application — such as applying for a new credit card or a mortgage — the lender will check your score to assess whether you’re a credit risk. This is called a hard inquiry, and it will be listed on your credit report for up to two years.

Soft credit inquiries, on the other hand, do not impact your credit score. Soft inquiries happen when you get estimates on a loan without submitting a formal application. For example, if you were to share personal data to compare interest rates on personal loans, you would incur a soft inquiry, not a hard inquiry.

Is checking my credit score free?

You can get a free credit score from services like Credit Karma and Experian, as well as some services offered for free by banks, credit cards, and credit unions. Legally, each credit agency is required to provide you with a full credit report for free once per year. You may also be eligible for additional reports under some circumstances, as outlined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

• If you’ve been denied credit, insurance, or employment based on something found on your credit report

• If you think fraud has impacted your credit file

• If you’ve requested a credit report while placing a fraud alert on your account

• If you’re unemployed and you plan to apply for jobs within the next two months

• If you receive public welfare assistance

• If your state law requires access to free credit reports

Why do I have multiple credit scores?

You have multiple credit scores because they’re each calculated by different credit bureaus. They use two different types of credit scores: the FICO score, and the VantageScore, sometimes referred to as the VantageScore 3.0 or 4.0. Both types of scores analyze roughly the same data, but they don’t apply the same weight to each criterion, according to Credit Karma.

Neither type of credit score is more “important” than the other — different lenders simply use different models to judge potential borrowers’ creditworthiness. You won’t know which they use, and there isn’t a way for you to influence one score over another, as they’re simply different interpretations of the same data.

What makes up my credit score?

Credit scoring models use a variety of factors to build your FICO score. According to MyFICO, the consumer division of the company that created the model, these factors include:

• Payment History (35%)

• Credit Utilization (30%)

• Credit History (including length of credit history) (15%)

• New Credit (10%)

• Credit Mix (10%)

So, the two most important things you can do are to make your payments on time and avoid using too much of your available credit at once. Keeping your credit utilization under 30% (so, under $300 if you have a total credit limit of $1,000) shows that you’re a responsible borrower and a low credit risk.

How do I improve my credit score?

The best way to improve your credit score is to make sure you have a perfect on-time payment history for each of your credit accounts. That includes credit card bills, student loans, your mortgage, and any other debts you may have.

It can take time to build your credit history, or to repair it if you’ve missed payments in the past, declared bankruptcy, or allowed an account to go into default. Here are a few things you can start doing today — and keep doing, consistently — to improve your score over time.

Set up automatic payments to make sure you’re always on time

If you have trouble remembering to pay bills, you can set up autopay on your loans and credit cards so that the money is automatically debited from your account on specific dates each month. Just make sure you have the cash to do this so you don’t accidentally go into overdraft, which can come with costly fees.

Open or close a credit account

There’s no perfect magic number of types of credit accounts to have open at any one time. Equifax recommends having two to three credit cards plus a mix of other types of credit accounts,  but that doesn’t mean it’s the right amount for you. If having more credit cards makes it easier to spend more money than you can afford to repay on time, that will decrease your score more than keeping accounts open for the sake of appearances.

If you don’t have any credit cards, opening a new one could improve your score over time. You may initially see a small decrease in your score when the inquiry is recorded on your report, but don’t stress about this — it’s normal. Once you start using the credit card and making on-time payments, your score will increase as you build your credit history.

On the other hand, if you have, say, a dozen credit cards, closing a few could also increase your score.

If you have multiple credit cards with the same company, you may be able to call them and have your credit limit transferred from one card to another so that you still have the same amount of credit available to you even though you’ve closed some accounts. This can help you maintain a lower credit utilization rate, as the higher your credit limits are and the lower your balances are, the better that percentage will be.

Use a credit score estimation calculator to see how changes could impact your score

Some credit score services, like Chase Credit Journey, allow you to do a credit check on yourself and estimate how your score could change. You can use sliders to estimate how your score may change if you pay off an account, close an account, open a new account, or make an extra payment on a large debt.

While they’re not perfect, these tools can help borrowers like you get a sense of how various changes can impact your credit file.

Make sure there are no errors on your credit report

If you pay all your bills on time and your score is lower than you think it should be, there’s always a chance that there’s a mistake on your report, or that you’ve unknowingly been a victim of identity theft.

This is why it’s important to request annual credit reports, so you can make sure to address any issues as soon as they arise. If you see new accounts you don’t recognize or an unfamiliar credit inquiry on your report, you should contact the credit bureau immediately.

Refinance your loans to improve your debt-to-income ratio

You can reduce your debt-to-income ratio by paying down outstanding balances. You can do this faster if you’re able to refinance your loans for lower interest rates so that more of your payments go toward the principal balance. This saves you money over time and may also lower your monthly payments, depending on how you choose to refinance.

You may be eligible to refinance your student loans with Earnest if you meet the credit score requirements. If you have fair credit, you may also be able to qualify for lower interest rates if you apply with a cosigner who has excellent credit—which could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars over the life of your loan. Check your rate today to see how much you could save. It only takes minutes and, as it’s a soft inquiry, it won’t hurt your credit score.

This blog post provides personal finance educational information, and it is not intended to provide legal, financial, or tax advice.

Information in this blog, including the rates advertised. are current as of 06/02/2023 and is subject to change. For current rates, please visit www.earnest.com.

Earnest receives compensation from Fiona on a per-funded loan basis.

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