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how to check your credit score

How To Check Your Credit Score

Find out how to check your credit score here. It's fast & easy and being aware of it puts you in the drivers seat when applying for finance!

There are many reasons you might be trying to check your credit score. Whether you are looking to take out a new loan, or wanting to see how a past loan affected your score, being able to check is vitally important. Lenders use this score to determine whether or not it is worth taking a risk on you and lending credit, which is why you want to be across your score at all times.

What is Your Credit Score?

Your Equifax score, or credit score, is a number between 0 and 1200 that reflects your history of borrowing. A good credit score generally sits between 622 and 725, while excellent is above 833. Of course, if you score is less then it is considered a bad credit score, which can make it harder to borrow money.

Lenders check your credit score before deciding whether or not to offer you a loan. If you are considered high risk (ie, have a bad credit score), you will likely be turned down, or charged greater interest on your loan. This is why is important to know how to check you credit score and stay on top of it.

credit score

What Affects Your Credit Score?

There is a number of different factors that affect your credit score.

  • The amount you owe: the more debt you have the more of an impact it has on your credit score.
  • Your credit applications: the amount of times you apply for a loan also affects your score. If you are shopping around for the best price, it is good to make these inquiries in short succession so they only count once on your credit report.
  • Credit utilisation ratio: this is how much of your available credit you are actually using. If you are at the higher end, it suggests you are financially struggling and will affect your credit score.
  • Your credit history: the more history you have, the better your score.
  • Types of credit: the more variety you have, the better your score.
  • Your past payments: if you have missed payments or defaulted on previous loans then this will be reflected as well.

Why do I Need to Check my Credit Score? 

If you don’t check your score regularly, you are unable to stay across it. Occasionally, there are marks on your file that are incorrect, which you can dispute. Of course, you need to know what is going on your credit file in the first place to do so. The process of fixing a negative listing on your report is known as credit repair. This is an avenue you can go down is you find yourself with a low credit score and listings that shouldn’t be there. You can either do this yourself, or hire a credit repair company.

You never know when you are going to need to take out a loan. Life is unpredictable and things crop up, so it always worth knowing your financial situation and what help you will have available to you if you need it. Do, how do you check your credit score.

check credit score

How to Check Your Credit Score

 If you have ever applied for a loan in the past, then you will have a credit report. It’s not something people think about often, unless they are looking to take out a new loan.

The process itself is actually quite simple. There is a number of online providers you can use to access your credit score for free. That is, provided you are willing to wait 10 days to receive it and only request one copy a year. If you need it in a quicker timeframe, or are requesting multiple copies a year then there is likely to be costs involved.

If the provider is asking for credit card details, then avoid them. The process should be simple and it should be free. If it isn’t then it is likely a scam.

Inside your report you will find all your personal information, along with each line of credit you have held in the past two years, your repayment history, any defaults on bills, your repayment history, credit applications, debt agreements and more. It paints an overall picture of you as a borrower. All this information is then use to give you a score, which lenders will then look at to determine if you are worth the risk on any future loans.

Finding a Reputable Source

If you are looking for a reputable credit company that will check your file for free, then head over to Clean Credit. We are professionals that will give you the results without mucking you around in the process. Plus, if you find yourself in a position of bad credit, we can help repair it as well.

 

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