How often to check credit report, when should I check credit score : Bad Credit Advisor

How often to check credit report, when should I check credit score

I want to see what is going with my credit report. Something tells me that my identity could be stolen. I am getting some letters and phone calls from the creditors I have not dealt in my entire life. Afraid it is too late. How often am I to check my credit report?
OR
I have been trying to raise my scores, and have in the last 3 months raised them 40 points from mid upper 500s to lower 600s. I am looking forward to further increases. When should I check credit score? Is there a general date for new credit scores? I just made 3 large payments to my credit cards bringing utilization rate way down and want to pull my new score but not sure when.

These are two very different questions from our readers, both deserving a detailed answer.

So how often to check credit report to see if everything is all right and there is no funny stuff going on? Every 3 months for someone who is really concerned or at least twice a year for those who take it easy. There are several resources where you can order your credit report for free, and since all you want is to proof-read it against potential identity theft, you do not need to buy credit scores. For starters, you should get free annual credit report once a year. Then there is a number of services that offer 30 day free trial like IdentitySecure. Credit card issuers often offer a credit report for free. Pentagon Credit Union gives you very decent protection for only $4.95 per month. This is less than pack of cigarettes or a fancy Starbucks drink. Check our 3-in-1 Credit Monitoring Comparison for more information, even it was written for 2008, things haven't changed much. Finally, if you are still unable to sleep well, just do a credit report freeze.

When should I check credit score while trying for a few fast credit repair tricks? Understand that FICO scores are dynamic and FICO is continuously recalculated as you add or close accounts, and your reported credit accounts change and age. So you should check your credit score after your current creditors report to the credit reporting agencies and the changes are accounted for. So whatever payments were made, you need to know when the credit cards in question report and this often gets a bit complicated. Normally credit reporting agencies get updated few days after you receive your credit card statements. But certain creditors have some peculiar dates and even credit reporting agencies often post new information few days apart from each other. So wait a week after you receive your statements. To play it safe and if you can hold on, make it two weeks.

Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:10PM by Tony | More in Personal Finance | Comments (0)

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