There is no standard rule of thumb for how often you should check your credit report because information could be updated often depending on how many creditors you have and how much you use credit. Most creditors report to the credit bureaus once per month but each creditor reports at a different time of the month so credit reports can be updated often. Follow along with our guide to how and when is the right time to check your credit report.
How often can I check my Credit Report?
With the number of credit monitoring services growing seemingly year after year, consumers are able to check their credit as often as they’d like as long as they are a client of those credit companies. Checking your credit score will never hurt your score but most consumers don’t need to check their credit scores daily.
When Should you Check Your Credit Report?
If you feel your credit score may be low then you may want to check your credit before moving ahead with any financial activity. Specifically, you may want to consider checking your credit either before or after some of the following financial activities:
Applying for a loan
Applying for a Credit Card
Applying for a Mortgage
Refinancing a Loan
Searching for a New Job
When checking your credit report, you are looking for errors that may appear on your credit report, accounts that may have been mistakenly reported as being late, accounts that may not be yours, as well as checking reported balances to make sure your credit utilization is not too high. All of these factors can affect your credit score so monitoring this type of activity can pay off in the long run.
Depending on how active you are with your credit accounts, or whether you are applying for any new accounts or refinancing any existing accounts, once per quarter is fine to check your credit report. If you are about to apply for a new account or refinance an existing account, then once per month might be ideal for checking your credit report.
How do I obtain a copy of my Credit Report?
First, a little background information on obtaining your credit report straight from the Federal Trade Commission website which says “The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide credit reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. The FCRA promotes the accuracy and privacy of information in the files of the nation’s credit reporting companies. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, enforces the FCRA with respect to credit reporting companies”.
The three nationwide credit reporting companies have set up a central website, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address through which you can order your free annual report.
To order, visit annualcreditreport.com, or call 1-877-322-8228. Or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Do not contact the three nationwide credit reporting companies individually. They are providing free annual credit reports only through annualcreditreport.com.
As a rule of thumb, if you think that you have any negative credit entries, derogatory items, and/or collection accounts on your credit report then it is recommended that you obtain a copy of your credit report right away. Once you receive the report, take the time to go through report entry by entry and verify each one is in fact your current or past accounts.
Any negative items on the report that are not yours need to be addressed with each of the three credit bureaus. Send them a letter along with a copy of the negative entries on your report with a formal request that this item be removed. Keep copies of all of your correspondence to the credit bureaus. Follow up with a phone call to the credit bureaus about a month after your letter is sent to them.
Your efforts to remove the negative entries on your credit report should yield results in two – four months. And removing negative entries from one’s credit report normally has an immediate positive impact on one’s credit score.
Contact the three major credit bureaus at:
Equifax 1 800 685-1111 equifax.com
Experian 1 888 397-3742 experian.com
TransUnion 1 800 916-8800 transunion.com
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