Guide to Credit Score
and Credit Reports

Learn more about your credit

score and how to manage it.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Removing Closed Accounts from Your Credit Report

 

Closed accounts on your credit report may be bad or good for your credit score, depending on the details. Explore your options if a closed account has a negative impact.

What Does FICO Score 8 Mean?

 

FICO Score 8 is currently the most popular of many FICO scoring model versions that businesses use to size up a borrower’s risk.

Credit Score Ranges: What is an Excellent, Good, or Poor Credit Score?

 

Learn about credit score ranges from FICO and VantageScore, and how they classify Excellent, Good, or Poor credit scores.

WHAT'S NEW

What Is a Rapid Rescore?

 

Rapid rescoring is a process that allows borrowers to quickly update their credit reports to reflect recent changes. This may help you to improve your credit scores for a mortgage application.

Money Muling: How to Spot and Avoid This Scam

 

Money muling is where individuals are recruited to transfer illegally obtained funds. Learn how to recognize the signs of money muling and protect yourself from falling victim to this scam.

What Is a Credit Reference?

 

A credit reference is a document, person, or company that provides information on an individual's credit history. Lenders, landlords, and others can request them.

ALL CREDIT REPORT ARTICLES

Rapid rescoring is a process that allows borrowers to quickly update their credit reports to reflect recent changes. This may help you to improve your credit scores for a mortgage application.

Money muling is where individuals are recruited to transfer illegally obtained funds. Learn how to recognize the signs of money muling and protect yourself from falling victim to this scam.

A credit reference is a document, person, or company that provides information on an individual's credit history. Lenders, landlords, and others can request them.

How long a bankruptcy stays on a credit report varies, but most last years. Here are tips to manage credit before and after filing for bankruptcy.

Getting a credit card with no credit history is tricky. Learn about the ways to get a credit card without a credit history like authorized user, or secured credit card.

Unauthorized hard inquiries can negatively affect your credit score. Learn steps you can take to remove unauthorized hard inquiries from your credit report.

Gain insights into how long hard credit inquiries typically stay on your credit report and discover their potential impact on your credit score.

Collection accounts may stay on your credit report for up to seven years and can lower your credit score. Learn how you may be able to get them taken off your report.

Identity theft is fairly common, but it may take time to spot it. Here are 10 warning signs of identity theft and what to do if your identity is stolen.

Understand the difference between soft and hard credit pulls before checking your credit report.

Credit reporting errors can sometimes happen, potentially lowering your credit score. Learn how you can take action to remove incorrect items from your credit report.

Understanding what a credit report is could be confusing. Learn what information a credit report contains and how to get your credit report for free.

Some employers do credit checks before hiring to help limit their risk. Here’s what they look for, your legal rights, and how to maintain a positive credit profile.

Technically, FHA loans require a minimum credit score of 500. But many lenders require higher credit scores – especially if you want to qualify for a 3.5% down payment.

Applying for a car loan? Lenders will check your credit history and credit score. Read about the score you need to buy a car—before applying.

Enroll with MyCredit Guide to get a free monthly credit report that you can access at any time or you can request a copy of your credit report from 3 credit bureaus once a year.

Your credit reports are put together by three national agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Learn all about them here.

Your FICO score is a three-digit number based on the info in your credit report. Learn what your FICO score is, why it matters, and how it’s calculated.

If your credit scores are different depending on where you look, don’t worry. There are many reasons why your credit score can differ – and most of them are normal.

FICO Score 8 is currently the most popular of many FICO scoring model versions that businesses use to size up a borrower’s risk.

Learn about the credit score range by FICO or VantageScore and how they are classified as Excellent, Good or Poor credit score.

Is it helpful to set up a fraud alert on your credit report? Here’s why doing so could prevent or reduce instances of fraud in the future and protect your credit health.

You have different credit scores depending on the credit bureau and specific scoring model used by lenders. Learn more about the different types of credit scores.

Closed accounts on your credit report may be bad or good for your credit score, depending on the details. Explore your options if a closed account has a negative impact.

Know about different source from your bank to credit card providers and others on how you can check your credit score for free.

Your credit report has valuable personal information. See something amiss? Dispute credit report to get mistakes or irrelevant information off your credit history, which can help your score.

Closed accounts remain visible on your credit report for seven to 10 years, depending on whether they were in poor or good standing when closed.

Understanding the factors that affect your credit score can help you improve your score over time. Here’s what you need to know about how credit scores are calculated.

Late payments stay on your credit report for years and can only be deleted if they’re incorrect. Here’s how to remove erroneous late payments from your credit report.

Here’s a guide to what shows up on your credit report. Learn what’s included and not included in your report – and how it factors into your credit score.

A landlord may run a credit check on a potential tenant to see how well they handle money. Tenant screening may include rental history, income, and background checks.

It can take at least six months

to establish credit from scratch.

The material made available for you on this website, Credit Intel, is for informational purposes only and intended for U.S. residents and is not intended to provide legal, tax or financial advice. If you have questions, please consult your own professional legal, tax and financial advisors.