How Inquiries Affect Your Credit Score
January 7, 2008
Many people wonder how inquiries affect their credit score? Does it hurt your credit score to check your credit, or if a potential employer checks your credit? Here’s the scoop on how inquiries affect your credit score…
Ten percent of your credit score comes from applications made to your credit report. Each time a creditor or a lender takes a look at your credit report to determine whether or not to extend you credit an additional inquiry is placed on your credit report.
If you’ve checked your credit report lately, you may have noticed inquiries from businesses you might not have heard of. Not all of these inquiries have an effect on your credit score, so don’t panic!
The inquiries that DO affect your credit score are those from your own credit applications. When you apply for a credit card, auto loan, or mortgage, you give the lender permission to look at your credit report. This places a voluntary inquiry on your credit report and these are the inquiries that do have an effect on your credit score.
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Credit Resolutions for the New Year
January 1, 2008
One way to cut the sting of the post-holiday credit card bills is to set a new agenda when it comes to credit. So consider the following ideas when setting your credit resolutions for 2007:
Set dates for getting your credit reports: Each year, you should check each of your credit reports from annualcreditreport.com directly. You should spread out your requests, making requests quarterly so you can catch errors that might come up at different parts of the year and spot identity theft.
Get your credit score once a year: A credit score is a three-digit number that reflects the credit history detailed by a person’s credit report. Go to www.myfico.com to retrieve your credit score once a year from one or all of the three credit bureaus.
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