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Credit & Growth · session 1 of 6 · 30 min
What a Credit Report Says About You
- Tell the report (the record) from the score (a number computed from it).
- Get your own report free, and read it for errors worth fixing.
Your credit report is a record: accounts you have opened, balances you carry, payments you made on time or late. Your credit score is a number computed from that record. Fix the record, and the number follows. Chase the number without reading the record, and you are steering by the horn instead of the wheel.
The record rewards a few things above all. Paying on time, every time, matters most — one habit, more weight than anything else. Using only part of the credit you could use helps. Old accounts quietly help by making your history longer. Opening many new accounts at once quietly hurts.
Checking your own credit report will —
Pick your answer first, then open it.
Not affect your credit at all
✓ Correct. Checking your own report is a soft inquiry — it never counts against you. The record is about how you borrow, not whether you look.
Lower your score a little each time
That fear keeps people from looking, and not looking is how errors sit for years. Your own checks are soft inquiries and cost nothing.
Raise your score, since it shows you are careful
Looking does not help the number either — it helps you. What raises the record is what the record measures: on-time payments and modest balances.
This week
Request your free credit report this week from the official source. Read every account it lists, and mark anything you do not recognize — errors are common, and they are fixable in writing.
Next in Credit & Growth: The Cost of Carrying a Balance →