"Checking your own credit won't hurt your score."

[Anonymous]

Where did this expression come from and why do we hear it all the time?  I just heard a Discover ad on the radio that was referencing creditscorecard.com and sure enough it said, "...checking your own credit won't hurt your score."  Checking your own credit never hurts your score.  I feel like the only reason people question checking their own credit in the first place is because ads like this make people question it.  Then they think "ok, well with creditscorecard it won't hurt my score if I check... but what about OTHER services?"  They are left thinking still that checking their own credit via some other means may hurt their score.  I feel like if this bogus expression never started in the first place, people wouldn't question using monitoring services, checking their score, etc. 

I just find this annoying.  I have a bunch of employees that I've talked to about credit and in conversation many of them have told me they haven't every checked their reports or pulled their score from a free service because they were under the impression that it could hurt their score. 

[pizza1]

I think with all the knowledge out there on the internet, people are educating themselves more and more on everything, including finances/credit.

I mean just look sometime at the "guest online" count here on fico at any given time. Those are people lurking, not members, so people are more aware, and lenders are privy to this as well.

There is also a lot of wrong information floating around out there on the internet, and lenders know this too, so I think they want the business, but are just reassuring folks.

Ive noticed this comment as well more over the last couple years than anytime in my life.

[Anonymous]

No doubt about it.

I just feel like if the comment never came about in the first place, people wouldn't be worried or hesitant to check their own credit report.  At this point, it is what it is and obviously isn't going away.

[Anonymous]

They could definitely word it that way in an effort to get people from their product, but I think it mostly comes from people knowing that "running" their credit hurts them.  I am sure that many people don't know the difference between the two or between hard and soft pulls for that matter.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

They could definitely word it that way in an effort to get people from their product, but I think it mostly comes from people knowing that "running" their credit hurts them.  I am sure that many people don't know the difference between the two or between hard and soft pulls for that matter.

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^^ this

I think it stems from a decade plus ago before we had so many tools to check our own credit. I would think that notion would have expired by now, but hey, not everyone is like us

[Anonymous]

I tell yall...I wish that I understood how important having good credit was so many years ago. I was never taught the importance of none of this. I just started really getting into all this credit about 3 years ago when I got my butt out to buy a car. Then after that I wanted to buy a house so I talked to loan officer at my bank and she advised me to keep check on credit using service like credit karma and to get a credit card and keep it under 30%. Well I did all that, but she never told me to "do more homework" on learning about credit.

I got curious one day back several months ago and came across this fico forum and I am so thankful I did. I just wish I knew about this site so many years ago.

I just want to extend a VERY BIG THANK YOU to everyone who takes precious time out of their busy lives to get on here and answer our questions and give such excellent advice.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I, for one, am so extremely grateful to you guys.