A while ago, here I showed people how to get their credit scores free. When we discussed this, a couple of people told me that checking their credit score frequently will reduce their score. I checked, and it does not. This is the advantage of doing it yourself; if the bank does it, it can reduce your score. This is because bank enquiries they record. Now suppose you speak to a mortgage broker. The broker does a credit check; there is no problem. If that broker goes to ten banks on your behalf, the ten banks' enquiries will be significant. These enquiries, as they are frequent, give the impression that you are short on cash and/or are a person that keeps looking, which banks do not like.
Many consistently track their credit score, especially if they have poor credit risks.
How important are these credit scores?
In my experience, not so much if your score is over 600. I have seen people with bad scores having to go to many banks and credit providers. We had one broker we used a lot because it did not matter what the person's financial state was; that guy seemed to be able to get the money. Still, as long as you are willing to hunt around, in my experience, a bad credit score does not seem to be a significant factor to credit providers. They look mainly at your serviceability, the security and then you. You are not being silly if you go to the loan officer in the bank smartly dressed and acting confident. Still, I would prefer to go to a bank with a good credit score than with a bad one.
If you want to look at your score, the one that seems the most popular is Experian, and you can get your score here.
Note: I am not a financial expert, and this is not financial advice.
