When to Check Your Annual Credit Report

[Anonymous]

Hello, I was wondering when is a good time to check your free annual credit report? I have never checked it and think I should. Here's a little background about myself. 

I am 25 and have had my firsrt credit card for 3 years next month. I have an auto loan from this past January and opened 2 more credit cards this month. I'd like to check the annual credit report just to see what's on there and to make sure everything is in order. But I also want to make sure to get the most accurate information so I would like to make sure the 2 new credit cards are on there. I just activated the cards yesterday, but was approved for both on May 30th. Just wondering what your opinions are on this since I really have a very limited understanding of what I am doing here. 

[Anonymous]

Welcome!

I would check it annually....sorry couldn't resist.

Personally I like to do one of each ever 4mo to spread them out. Although most recently I did all three at once I had an account that wasn't reporting to all a wanted to do a comparison. I think each method has it's value. If you have never checked any I would say do one or more now. If you do find an error the sooner it can dealt with the better.

[Anonymous]

After rereading your post I see you opened some accts recently...I personally would wait a little until I was sure they started reporting. Also if you plan anything big in the future, mortgage, auto...do it prior with enough time to fix any errors.

[mitchblue]

I would try here often https://www.creditscore.com

Free Experian score and report.. New report at least once a month.

[Anonymous]

Great recomendation by Mitch.  Bear in mind that you need to have had at least one account for six months before you will be eligible for a true FICO score, therefore don't be surprised if the link he gave you doesn't give you a FICO score for the first month.

But by all means, start getting acquainted with free tools that enable you to pull your reports every month -- not just once a year.  The link Mitch gave you is awesome for Experain.

The other two bureaus are Equifax and TransUnion.  You can get your reports for these two bureaus for free at Credit Karma.  (Just be sure to ignore the scores you get at Karma, which are not FICO scores.)  Karma will give you fresh reports as often as once per week.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the recommendations. After checking creditscore.com and creditkarma.com I have a few questions. On my EX report, it seems that I have 2 hard inquires for the same thing. Both on the same day from a singel auto loan from the same dealership. Is this normal? Does it hurt me? Worth getting fixed? Also it has one of my new credit cards already on there (Discover, but not BoA), however it has the BoA inquiry on there, but not the Discover inquiry. My TU report hasn't been updated in 2 years according to Credit Karma. No idea what's going on there. My EQ also has my Discover account on there, but not my BoA. However it also doesn't have my Discover inquiry, but does have my BoA inquiry. Lastly, it has a JPMorgan/Chase inquiry which I never authorized or requested and I don't even know what that is from. Sorry if this is all long and confusing, but does this all seem normal and is there anything I should do it make these reports more accurate? Especially my TU since it hasn't been updated in 2 years.  

[Anonymous]

What you are trying to do is a good thing.  You are trying to figure out of the info on your reports is correct and complete.  The way to do that is to first make a list of all the credit accounts you have ever had with the following information:

      What kind of account is it (credit card, auto loan, student loan, etc.)?

      When was it opened?

      Is it currently open or closed?

             If closed, when was it closed?

      What is the current balance on it?

Make this list based on your memory and your own banking records, not based on what the reports say.  This is what you think should be on your reports if they were complete and correct.

Then compare this this with what the reports say.

For example, your master list of what it should say has this much on it for sure.

      Credit Card.  Opened July 2014.  (Still open?  Current balance?)

      Auto loan.    Opened Jan  2017.  (Still open?  Current balance?)

      Credit Card.  Opened May  2017.  Open.  Balance = $0.

      Credit Card.  Opened May  2017.  Open.  Balance = $0.

But you may have other accounts past or present that should be listed.

It's not strange that one or both new credit cards might not yet appear on your reports.  It's not strange that an inquiry for each should appear on different reports.

Have you been using your three-year-old card periodically for the last three years?

[Anonymous]

I have been using my 3 year old card regularly. It was my only card and I put all of my expenses on it each month. All dates and balances of accounts listed are correct, just not all accounts are listed yet. 

So it's normal for some inquires to only appear on one report and not another?

Is it normal for one inquiry (the single auto loan I applied for at one time from the dealership) to be listed twice under two slightly different names on one report?

Is it normal for my TU report to not be updated in 2 years? All i had during that time was one credit card so is it possible they haven't reported to TU in 2 years?

[Anonymous]

Is it possible that you became a member of Credit Karma 2+ years ago, that you pulled your TU report, and since then have not pulled your TU report?  That's my guess is to what Karma means when it says that you haven't pulled your TU report for two years.

Take a close look at the 3-year old credit card as it appears on your TU report and your EQ report.  There should be several "date" fields -- all with slightly different names:

Date Opened

Date Closed

Last Reported:

Date of Last Payment

etc.

Inspect the LAST REPORTED field.  If it gives a date in the last 40 days, then your card has indeed been reporting to TU and to EQ through the present.

It is normal for most inquiries to go to only one bureau.  A common exception is a big loan like a mortgage, in which case the lender will pull your credit at all three bureaus.

What probably happened in the case of your auto loan is the dealer tried sending it to multiple lenders to see if he could get a good financing deal for you.  I wouldn't worry about it.  With auto, mortgage, or student loans, if several inquiries all appear in the same short window of time (e.g. 5 auto loans at EQ in the same 13-day period) then FICO treats them collectively as one inquiry.  Also, inquiries lose all scoring impact whatsoever after 365 days.  Finally, the scoring effect of one inquiry is quite small, even in that first year.

Is it clear to you how best to manage your credit cards now that you have three of them?  I.e. how to control what balance reports to the bureaus, what you want it to be for optimal scoring, etc?

[Anonymous]

Just logged into CK again and my TU is up to date. I guess you were right. I looked it up 2 years ago and haven't touched it since. I think just about all of my questions are answered. Last one I have is how does what I was able to look up today differ from what I would recieve from annualcreditreport.com? Finally, I haven't really thought about how to mange my new cards for optimal scoring. To be honest I got them for two reasons.

First, to add some more accounts to my credit history. As mentioned I only had that one prior credit card and a new car loan. I wanted to make sure that if in the future I wanted to apply for a large loan, I would have a lot of lines of credit with positive history. I don't plan on applying for any in the near future so I thought this was also a good opportunity for the credit accounts to gain in AAoA. Also included here is the increased credit limits which would lower my utilization. I had a line of 4500 on my first card and regularly had a statement balance of around 500-1000. I know that's not bad, but I was hoping to get it down. I thought these two new cards would lower my utilization, especially in a few months or a year when I can get some limit increases. 

Second, I just wanted some more rewards. My first card got me 1.25% cash back on all puchases. I got these two cards because one offers 3% on gas and 2% on groceries (which is probably 75% of what I spend money on) and the other offers 2% on restaurants which is my third biggerst spending category. 

I'd appreciate any advice on how to best use these cards to help me get the best possible scores.