If you plan to take out a car loan or buy a new house, chances are you might be spending the days regularly checking your credit score before your application to know where it currently stands. However, just because you often check doesn’t mean you will see an update.
Credit scores can update at different times during the month and there might be instances when it can take several days or even weeks before your credit score gets updated. You might also check your score today for your credit card or loan application tomorrow and see a change in your score.
How Often is Your Credit Scores Updated?
Your credit scores continuously fluctuate as updates are made on your credit report information. Account openings, bill payments, and new balance amounts are just some of the factors that show up on your credit report and affect your credit score.
In general, you can pretty much expect that your credit score gets updated at least once every month however, this can also happen more often if you got several financial products. Your score may update or refresh every time your creditors send details to TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, the three primary credit bureaus.
This means that your credit might send Equifax some updated information today, then TransUnion next week, and Experian the following week, all of which can lead to credit score variations.
There might also be fluctuations in your credit score every time you check several credit score services working with the different main credit bureaus. As mentioned earlier, these credit bureaus might receive data at different times during the month. It means that if you are checking your scores today with TransUnion and Experian, they might be different if one got information that the other doesn’t.
Some other common reasons behind the differences in credit score include errors that might show up on your credit report and the specific model used for credit scoring.
Ways to Check Credit Scores for Free
You can choose from the dozens of resources that are available at your disposal that will help you in checking your credit score with no need to pay for anything. However, the specific type of score that you will receive can vary between a VantageScore and a FICO Score. While these two can both help you understand the main factors that can affect your credit history, up to 90% of all lending decisions are actually based on the FICO Scores.
The simplest and easiest way for you to get access to your credit score for free is through the issuer of your credit card. Most card issuers offer their cardholders a free access to their VantageScore or FICO Score. Aside from your bank itself, you can also consider the resources from Capital One, Discover, and Experian that you can use for free.
It is only natural to be curious how often your credit score is updated, especially if you work hard to improve your credit to buy a home or car. Just remember that there is no exact or single formula or deadline followed here.
Here you can get information about getting credit score report free.