Free credit score and report Houston

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of free credit score and report Houston misinformation floating around about credit scores. Here are six of the most common myths and the facts to set you straight. The three major credit bureaus -- Equifax, TransUnion and Experian -- sell their services under different free credit score and report Houston names, but they all use the same formula to arrive at their numbers. Your score may vary slightly between the bureaus, however, because each has different information in your file. For example, one bureau’s records may go back longer, or a previous lender may have shared its info with only one bureau and not the other two. Unless the scores are wildly at odds, many lenders will use the one in the middle when they free credit score and report Houston consider your application. Having too many credit accounts can negatively affect your credit score, but canceling them may not improve it. To measure your ability to manage debt, credit bureaus look at free credit score and report Houston the amount of credit you’re using compared with the total amount you have available. So closing unused accounts reduces your untapped credit and may make free credit score and report Houston you appear overextended. credit history free Closing your oldest accounts is even worse because the longer a line of credit is open, the more history you’ve accumulated. If you do close an account, consider free credit score and report Houston closing your newest one and transferring free credit score and report Houston any balance to an older one. When a lender makes an inquiry about your credit, your score has the free credit score and report Houston potential to drop up to five points. For this reason, some borrowers are afraid that comparison-shopping for a mortgage or auto loan will result in multiple deductions. The score is set up to take into account that even though you are only looking for one loan, multiple lenders may request your credit report (i.e. For that reason, all mortgage or auto inquiries made in the 30 days prior to when you choose your loan will not affect your score. mycreditreport To determine your score, the credit agencies also free credit score and report Houston look back at any auto or mortgage inquiries that were made in free credit score and report Houston the past two years (but are older than the 30 day window). If there are any within that 2-year window, all of the inquiries that free credit score and report Houston fall into a normal "shopping period" are counted as just one inquiry when free credit score and report Houston determining your score. The length of the "shopping period" varies depending on the version of the FICO scoring formula used by your lender and can be either 14 days (older versions of the scoring formula) or 45 free credit score and report Houston days (newer versions of the scoring formula). Here's an example: Say you are applying for a loan and free credit score and report Houston are talking with four lenders. If you choose a loan within 30 days of those first credit pulls, the inquiries will not affect your score. The score then looks at the past two years of your credit report. Say you applied for a car loan a year ago with three lenders. If your current lender is using the older version of the scoring free credit score and report Houston report, all three inquiries will count as only one inquiry, as long as they occurred within 14 days of each other. credit fraud reporting Your credit score is a measure of your past performance, not your current debt load. Paying off your credit cards and settling any outstanding loans will certainly help, but if you have a history of late or missed payments, it won’t undo the damage overnight.

Improving your credit score takes time, so after paying down your debts, make an effort free credit score and report Houston to consistently pay your bills on time. You may receive an offer from a company that claims it can free credit score and report Houston fix your bad credit rating. The truth is if the credit bureaus have accurate information, there’s nothing you or anyone else can do to quickly improve your score if you haven’t managed your debts well in the past.