Will Checking My Credit Lower My Score?

If you are getting ready to apply for a new loan or credit card, one way to find out where you stand is to check your credit report. You can check your own credit report or credit score without hurting your score at all. In fact, checking your credit can help you identify errors that you can correct to boost your credit score.

Credit Check Effects

When you check your credit report or credit score, you run a credit inquiry on yourself. Credit inquiries are listed on your credit report in two major categories. Soft inquiries, which include checking your own credit, are not visible to lenders and do not affect your credit score. Other types of soft inquiries include those for pre-approved credit cards or insurance offers, those by companies with which you already hold an account and those by employers. Soft inquiries will never lower your credit score.

How to Check Credit

Check your own credit by getting a free credit report through the Annual Credit Report website. All consumers are eligible to obtain one free credit report per year from each credit bureau. You can also check your credit directly through a credit bureau. Visit the Experian, Equifax or TransUnion website to purchase a credit report or credit score. None of these methods of checking your own credit will lower your score at all.

Benefits of Checking Credit

Checking your credit can sometimes allow you to raise your credit score. For example, you might notice that one of your credit cards displays an artificially low credit limit that makes it look like you have maxed out the card and are very close to your limit. If you call your credit card company and ask for a correction on your credit limit, this can reduce the percentage of your credit that you are using and thus increase your score.

Warning

Some types of credit checks can lower your credit score. These are typically referred to as hard inquiries and generally refer to those initiated in response to your application for credit. Therefore, if you visit a lender to apply for a mortgage, the lender will run a credit check that adds a hard inquiry to your credit report. This inquiry can lower your credit score, usually by five points or less.