Before getting your credit score home loans, here are 10 facts about your credit score that you need to know before filling out an application. Keep these things in mind when getting your free credit score.

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Credit Score Home Loans
1. Your payment history is the biggest determining influence to your credit score. It’s important to make sure you pay your bills on time each every month. Having late or missing payments will only decrease your credit score. Also any bills that are 30 days late, 90 days late, or in collections will drop your credit score considerably. As a bonus, if you pay your credit card bills in full and pay off the whole balance every month, this will look great for your credit score.

2. Cancelling your credit cards that you use infrequently is a bad idea. Even if you don’t use those credit cards it’s a better idea to keep them open for 2 reasons. The first reason is that closing your credit cards will shorten your credit history. The second reason is that you will erase and available credit to you. Your credit history length is determined by the age of all your credit lines that you have open and have closed. If your credit card does not have an annual fee, there is really no reason to close that account. Keep it in a sock drawer and be sure to charge it every few months to keep it active.

3. Checking your credit score yourself will not hurt your credit score. Contrary to popular belief, you can check your credit score as many times as you want without hurting your credit score. There are two kinds of inquiries on your credit report, a hard pull or a soft pull. It is also known as a hard inquiry and a soft inquiry. A soft inquiry happens anytime someone checks your credit score but you are the only person able to see it. This includes checking your own credit score. The ones you have to worry about are hard inquiries. Hard inquiries are viewable by all credit agencies who check your score to find out if they can lend to you. Too many hard inquiries will make it look like you are taking on a lot of debt soon and banks and lenders do not like that. It makes you look more of a risky credit bororrow.

It doesn’t hurt you check your credit score. See it here for free.

4. A credit score of over 740 is considered really good. Try to get your score over this benchmark so that you will get the best interest rates and terms. Credit agencies are only going to get more stricter with their loaning practices, so it’s best to keep your credit score in tip top shape.

5. The average credit score nationwide is 640. This is an average credit score and will only get you mediocre financial benefits.

See where your credit score lies in this scale. Get your credit score for free here.

6. When you get your credit score, you see an educational version of it. There is no way you can see what credit score that lenders are able to see because it is only available to banks and lenders. But do not fret, the score you do get from ReallyFreeCreditScore.com is a very close guide to see where you need to improve on your credit score.

7. Credit agencies and lenders like credit card companies will send your financial information to credit bureaus on a voluntary basis. It will only benefit banks to do so, and creditors will happily provide your information to credit bureaus to help consolidate your financial information.

8. Paying the minimum payment on your credit cards will cause you to pay a lot of money in interest. Even with a credit balance of $5,000 and an APR rate of 20%, you will pay roughly $5,500 in interest if you only pay the minimum payments. That’s more than your entire balance to begin with! This is why it is important to try and make more than the minimum payment each time. The best case scenario is to pay your credit card balance in full each and every month.

9. Identity theft can happen to you, but you can check your monthly credit card statements, bank statements, and credit report and score regularly to deter it. Make sure you check your statements at least once a month to see any fraudulent activity and catch it early. Some banks and credit cards have restrictions on the time frame where you can report or dispute any errors. The earlier the better. It’s always a good idea to check your credit report at least once every 3 months to see if there is any erroneous information. This is the first sign of identity theft.

10. When applying for a job, your future employer and pull your credit report and decide to hire you based on that information. It is not illegal to do so, although you do need to provide written permission for them to pull your credit score.

Click here to get your credit score for free instantly.