Question:
How often should I check my credit score?
Answer:
You should keep a close eye on your credit score/profile to ensure that you don’t have any issues arise, unexpectedly. Things such as hard inquiries that you did not authorize, or even new accounts that do not belong to you.
We highly suggest that you check your credit score at least once a month, but it’s best to check it once a week.
You need to keep tabs on what’s going on with your credit profile, so be sure to sign up for at least one service (many are free!) so that you can control what goes on with your financials, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Being notified of any activity on your credit is a great way to keep control over your credit and to ensure that you’re not becoming a victim of identity theft.
There are plenty of free services to keep close tabs on your credit, so there should be no excuses. In fact, most have free apps for smart phones and even tablets as well. CreditKarma, Credit.com and CreditSesame are just a few great examples of such apps that you can download for no charge, and use at no charge, as a credit monitoring and scoring service each month.
With services such as CreditKarma you can check your credit score several times a month. In fact, as of this moment, they allow credit report updates every 7 days, which is great for those who are looking to see any improvements after making attempts to clean up their credit report.
Again, be sure to keep close tabs on your credit report with any kind of monitoring service that you choose. These services exist to help you, so use them to your advantage as they do not negatively affect your credit profile or score. These ‘credit checks’ are simply soft inquiries and have no affect on your credit score.
If you have any follow-up questions, please ask below in the comments section.