Will Looking at My Credit Score Lower It?

Your credit score affects whether you can obtain credit and what interest rate you get, so keeping your score as high as possible can lead to significant savings. Although some people believe that getting your credit report or credit score lowers the score, this is not true. You can look at your credit score without changing it at all.

Soft Inquiries

When a party looks at your credit report or credit score, this generates what is called an inquiry. Soft inquiries are those you make and those that are made by landlords, cable companies or pre-screened credit offers. They do not lower your credit score at all. Some inquiries, called hard inquiries, affect your credit score because they were made in response to your application for credit.

Significance

If you are afraid to check your credit because you believe the myth that it will lower your score, you could actually end up hurting your score instead. This is because your credit score is based on the information on your credit report and this information can sometimes be inaccurate. If you do not discover inaccurate negative information, this information will still continue to affect your credit score. If, instead, you check your own credit and find that you have been a victim of identity theft or that one of your credit accounts is reporting a mistake, you can dispute the information and repair your credit score.

Get Your Score

Look at your credit score by ordering it through one of many websites authorized to provide credit scores to consumers. You can purchase your score through FICO, which is the company that developed the formula that calculates credit scores. You can also purchase your score from each of the credit bureaus that compiles a credit report for you: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. If you would like to check your credit report but not the score, order a free report from each credit bureau through the Annual Credit Report website (see Resources).

Warning

If you would like to look at your credit score without lowering it, you must do so through a company that provides credit reports directly to consumers. Your credit score will decrease if you obtain it by applying for credit. For example, if you are shopping for a mortgage and your lender pulls your credit report and score to give you an interest rate quote, this will reduce your score. You can look at this copy of the credit score with your lender, but because the lender pulled the score, it will hurt your credit.