How frequently do you check your credit score

I do not check my credit score frequently except when am palnning to shop for new credit. I generally check it on a quarterly basis.

~Carol

Hey Mary,

I am now a part of this community :) And what else ... I can now cast my vote too :D

Hi TexasGuy,

Welcome to our community. We are here to help each other build up healthy credit for a better tomorrow. We are eager to see you as an active contributor as well. Enjoy your stay and please let us know if we can help you anytime.

BTW I avail the Equifax Credit Watch Silver (costs around $49.95 pa) which enables me to monitor any changes in my credit report. I prefer to check my FICO scores on a Quarterly basis.

Thanks,
Richard

I think this topic is great but how frequently should we check our fico score. ANd by checking it does it affect our score?

yeah cuase with all this fraud and defaults its hard to keep up with

Quarterly

I get my score every month but I print out my report every 3-4 months

your score can change dramatically from month to month due to many factors.

I think FICO should be checked twice a year as a base for purchase planning. If a large purchase ie mortgage is being planned then purchasing on a quarterly or even monthly may be needed to be considered. During the repair process it helps to chart the progress to purchase more than once a year.

I think yearly because of chance of change on your report by your creditors yearly unless negative info. is reported whenever received

You don't reduce your score by checking your credit, that is considered a soft inquiry, and you can see if anyone is doing something they should not

I feel you should do a free pull from one of the agencys every 3 to 4 months.

I think it should be checked monthly because it changes every 30 days.

at least every six months to see the needs for adjustments but it should also be monitored quarterly.

I agree with you on this point. Atleast twice a year should be the target. It should be done quarterly when we are actually on a repair program.

I do mine yearly, when I can get a free copy from each of the 3 cra's, I figure this would be enough time to get results from the year past. I usually do it at the beginning quarter of the year, round march or so.

I think we should do it at least every quarter... I do mine several times a month to ensure things are posted correctly...

Yes we can check it several times online. That does not affect our scores.

I check it twice in 6 months.

every six months is good any changes should be posted by then

I try to check every half year. If I know I am going to be doing something involving my credit I will start checking it more regularly.

That is a great approach. Similar to mine.

i believe changes take affect every (90) ninety days.

Scores do not change on a 90 day cycle...updated or removed information can have a drastic and immediate affect on the score.

I don't check it very often.....twice a year, I think. I should check it more. Is there a seperate FICO score, for ALL 3 CB's? The whole 'FICO score thing' confuses me.

I think it depends on situation more than anything, if your tring to get your credit stright to buy somthing, you gotta pull it more to make sure evey bad thing is dropping, if your just wanting to make sure everything is on a even kill, less is ok.

Very true or if you have good credit people may not check more than once or twice a year just to make sure everything is ok.

Your report is more important if you are trying to clean your credit history. The score becomes a necessity if you wish to make a purchase or if you really need to know the score to find out how much you require to get back to normal.

The scores of the three bureaus differ but getting panicky wont help. Know the reasons from the reports and then work accordingly. All your creditors do not report to all the three bureaus and neither do these bureaus work mutually. SO its your call how you deal with the situation.

I think it is good to check regardless all three. Until I started understanding credit and how it worked I had always wondered why places checked two different credit agencies. I understand this now knowing that everyone doesn't report to all the agencies.

Yes Fireyone,

I learned from experience. Initially I got confused but slowly with the understanding of the industry and the process (mainly from creditmagic) I learned a lot and applied my knowledge in real. May be thats why my report is clean today. :)

I check every month, or try to. quarterly at the very least.

I am glad to hear more people are checking their credit these days. Use to be when you heard about id fraud it was always somewhere far from home...now it has creeped up to our own doorsteps.

I have a service that keeps an eye on my FICO and emails me if anything changes monthly

Hi CMBV22

Can you share the service with the forum that helps you to keep an eye on your FICO scores quite often?

I think that one should always check the FICO scores quite often, if possible every month to have the latest updates.

Sure, I pay 10 a month and I get a monthly report on my FICO score. Anytime someone looks at my credit I get an alert via email. Heaven forbid someone should try and steal my idenity I would know before the damage was done. SInce they would alert me to the credit inquiry, I could shoot down the loan/ credit card theft before the ink could dry on the phony application. I can also view my report when I want. I use creditreport.com it has really been a God send in this credit repair process. Also, b/c they work with the credit Bureaus there is no hard inquiry on your CR to lower your score.

Credit report can be checked any number of times in a year. But under the FCRA, the US people are entitled to get only one free report each year. If you want to check the report more than once, you need to pay for it. I too think is that unless and until any negative information is reported the credit report hardly changes during the year and so there is no point in checking it again and again.

You have to really keep track of your credit reports. Esp. if you are divorced- new wife can open up an old acct. and your name can still be on it.

What do you think this is free advertising? You are tripple posting and this is annoying. If you are looking for business this isn't going to get it. It is like going to a car lot and having a sales person tagging your every move. I usually leave. hint.

I don't think they will be back, the curious thing is that it is a registered member and richard or someone on staff has not commented on it yet, they usually catch these things really quick.

I seen that the member has actually commented some pretty sensible things before this. Wonder if it was a few moments of insanity.

Oh, they will catch it sooner or later. As often as we all post here they have a lot of reading to do!

Very true.

I have not gotten my score is a long, larg tiem. Why does this on my credit report.