What a wonderful question, something I myself was not all too clear about either. When you check your credit score does it hurt your credit score? And who can check it? 

Firstly, I think it’s important to know, what is a credit score? 

The answer is fairly simple. Your credit score is a three digit number that is calculated based upon the information held in your credit report and one of the things that lenders use to decide how financially reliable you are.  Each Credit Reference Agency has its own scoring system and way of calculating it. Your credit report on the other hand is basically like your financial footprint and provides a record of your credit history,  what you’ve borrowed and how well you have managed your repayments. Your credit report also includes other information, such as anyone financially linked to you and a list of previous addresses associated with you.

Now you know what your credit score is, you must then wonder, what is my credit score? And therein lies the question, does checking your credit score hurt your credit score?

The following article, https://us.cnn.com/2021/03/19/cnn-underscored/does-checking-credit-hurt-credit-score/index.html,  has some great points, some of which I have listed below for you: 

There are a number of things that can affect your overall credit score, such as taking out new credit, not being on the electoral roll and even missing or not making repayments on time.  However, checking your own credit score will not affect your score.

There are essentially two types of requests that can be made to view your credit report: A hard inquiry and a soft inquiry.

Point 1: What is a hard inquiry;

This would be when you’ve applied for a mortgage, car loan, credit card or other form of credit, and your lender wants to see your credit report to determine if you’re a good credit risk. This appears on your report as a “hard inquiry” and it does affect your credit score, though only by a handful of points.

Type 2: What is a soft Inquiry;

Sometimes you haven’t made an application for credit with anyone, but a credit issuer wants to look at your credit report to consider you for a preapproved or promotional offer. This still appears on your report, but it’s known as a “soft inquiry,” and these soft inquiries don’t affect your credit score at all.

The good news is when you check your own credit score, you’re almost always making a soft inquiry, which means you can check your credit report and score and see where you stand without causing unnecessary damage.

So, if your goal is to take a peek at your credit score without causing any harm, then there is no reason not to. 

How ScoresMatter can help you Tap Into The Digital You®:

Here is where ScoresMatter comes in. We give you unlimited access to your credit report and score, we’ll even send you email alerts whenever there is a change to your credit file. Typically your credit report is updated every 2-3 months. You will be able to see if you have any missed payments and we’ll provide helpful hints and tips on how to improve your credit score. 

The most important thing to remember is whenever you are applying for credit this will impact your credit score and a lender should always let you know that they will be carrying out a credit check. They will normally confirm this before they run the search and they will ask for your consent,  as the search will be shown on your credit report. 

However, keeping an eye on your credit score and making sure everything is always correct and up to date is the responsible thing to do in our new digital age- it not only gives you your credit history, but could also show the first signs of identity theft. 

Don’t forget with ScoresMatter we don’t just give you access to your Credit report and Score, you get access to a Dark Web monitoring tool to see if your personal data is at risk and you can see how much you can afford to borrow based upon your actual bank account data with our Loan Affordability tool.

So why wait, head over to www.scoresmatter.co.uk  for all the details and Tap Into The Digital You® today. 

Remember to keep checking in for more hints and tips.