Your credit score is a very important number that indicates how trustworthy you are in borrowing money. If you pay your credit cards and other loan payments on time, have a low utilization ratio, and other factors, your credit score will be higher, and you’ll have more opportunities. However, even if you have good credit habits, you could have a lower score due to credit report mistakes. So it’s important to check for these mistakes and know how to fix them.
Make it a habit to always check your credit score. You can use free apps like Credit Karma to check your credit without any penalty. If you check it often, you should quickly see if any mistakes or fraud are on your report. For example, if a credit card you don’t use all of a sudden has a balance, that is most likely fraud. Once a year, it is good to pull an official credit report from annualcreditreport.com. This is an authorized website that will give you your full credit report.
If you see a mistake or fraud on your card, it’s best to take action the right way. If you see a charge on your credit card that you did not make, it’s best to contact your credit card company. Most of the time, they will open up an investigation and remove the charge from your card. If you have an entirely new line of credit that you never authorized to open, contact the credit bureau about this mistake. It’s better to reach out to someone, so the mistake you found doesn’t impact your score. You might see a slight decline in your score, but once the issue has been resolved, your score will go back up.
With credit fraud being so common today, checking your credit score every month on free apps and on official websites is important. You can check to see any suspicious activity on your credit report. If you see this activity, you can immediately take the appropriate actions to fix your credit score.