Have you ever thought to yourself “How can I find my credit score?” It’s likely that you probably have at some point. You’ve probably seen those commercials and ads online about getting free credit reports and scores.
If you have a bad credit score, it’s going to be very difficult and sometimes impossible to get new credit cards or loans. Once you have improved your score, you have a better chance of getting approved for credit and you can obtain better interest rates as well. However, if you aren’t sure what your score is, there’s no way to really know how good or bad your credit may be.
Purchase Your Credit Score
It is estimated that more than 90% of the largest banks and lenders obtain your FICO credit scores. FICO stands for Fair Isaac and Company and they are the actual company who came up with the FICO scoring formula that so many businesses continue to use today. You can easily purchase your own FICO scores at the official FICO website. They have a variety of products that you can choose from. You can also obtain up-to-date credit reports from two of the major credit bureaus including Equifax and Transunion.
Ask Lenders for Scores
If you are actively seeking credit and a lender pulls your credit scores you can ask them to let you know what your current scores are. Sometimes they will be the exact same FICO scores you see while some lenders will use a different scoring system. Either way, you’ll have a good idea about where you stand. The only downside to getting your credit scores from lenders is that you may get denied credit if your scores do not meet their standards or criteria. It’s better to know what your scores are before you apply for credit, which is why it’s recommended to purchase your FICO scores.
Check Credit Reports from the 3 Major Bureaus
It’s a good idea to check each of your credit reports every year. AnnualCreditReport.com makes it easy because you can obtain a free report from each of the major bureaus once each year. To keep an eye on everything what you can do is request one of the three reports every four months. Checking your credit reports also lets you see what kind of standing your current and past accounts are in.
If you have relatively good scores, but you have derogatory information reporting, you could be denied credit based on those negative accounts, especially if they are reporting a balance. Looking at your credit reports can be very useful and you should check them over periodically anyway just to be sure there aren’t any mistakes which can and do happen.
If you have checked over your credit reports and you believe there may be some errors, you should begin to do everything you can to improve credit scores.
References:
MyFICO.com: "Get Your FICO Score." Retrieved October 14, 2010.
AnnualCreditReport.com: " Request Your Free Annual Credit Report." Retrieved October 14, 2010.
Melinda Friedland - Melinda Friedland was recently married in the summer of 2009 and has 4 young children so she knows what it's like to be busy. She has been ...
