Credit Score Myths

If you are planning on applying for a mortgage or car loan soon, you may want to take some steps to boost your credit score in order to qualify for a great interest rate. There are some items that have absolutely no effect on your credit score at all, but many people are under the impression that they do.

These are 3 common credit score myths.

1. Closing accounts does not help your score and may hurt it by damaging your debt to available credit ratio.
   
2. Checking your FICO credit score multiple times will not lower your score if you are checking it for yourself. If you are applying for credit, FICO treats all inquiries within a 45 day period as one inquiry.
   
3. You actually have 3 different credit scores depending on which bureau you run your credit report from. Equifax, Transunion, and Experian all have different data on your credit history that does not get shared. Make sure you check your score with each of these bureau's to ensure that there are no errors. I've had to correct errors before from a credit report medical bill on Experian that did not show up on Transunion or Equifax.
   

Remember too, you can run a free annual credit report online each year from each of the bureau's. However, if you want to see your credit score it will cost you extra.