Best Credit Monitoring And Management Apps For IPhone

BillGuard may not be a credit monitoring app but managing your finances properly is key to maintaining a good credit history. Not only does BillGuard have amazing spending analytics so you can see where your money is going across all your accounts, you can also be alerted of fraudulent activity in just minutes of it occurring. Just link up all your bank and credit accounts and let BillGuard handle the rest. It's completely free to use!

For spending analytics and advanced alerts on possible fraudulent activity, nothing beats BillGuard. Your vote for best credit monitoring apps for iPhone, If you use an app that you think has helped you manage and monitor your credit score better, be sure to let me know what they are in the comments! And if you use any of the above, be sure to let me know why you chose what you did!

Inquiries into your credit background make up 10% of the pie. Hard inquiries knock a few points off your score. Soft inquiries do not. Checking your own credit is a soft inquiry. Here’s the lowdown on the different types of credit pulls and how they impact your score. The Fair Credit Reporting Act dictates who can legally inquire into (view) your credit history. The list includes insurance companies, landlords, utility companies, creditors you want to do business with, creditors you already have an existing debt with (or collectors working on their behalf), prospective employers and law enforcement agencies.

You also have the right to give someone who doesn’t fall under that umbrella the option to view your report. Inquiries can either be hard or soft, depending on who’s pulling your credit and what they’re using it for. When a lender or business obtains a copy of your credit report in response to an application for credit, it results in a hard inquiry.

The same goes for collection agencies conducting a skip trace. This means that it shows up on your credit report and is used in part to determine your credit score. Normally, each new hard inquiry shows up on your report but you get a break if you’re shopping around for a mortgage or car loan or you’re trying to refinance your student loans.

Soft inquiries occur when a person or company (a prospective employer, for example) checks your credit report as part of a background check. If you’re getting a rate quote for a loan, the lender may do a soft inquiry as part of the pre-approval process. Checking your own credit counts as a soft inquiry, which means you can check it as many times as you like without any risk of hurting your score.

In fact, you should check your credit report and score regularly, particularly if you’re concerned about identity theft or reporting errors. An unexpected drop in your score, for example, might mean that someone has gotten credit in your name and failed to make payments, or that incorrect information is being reported in connection with one of your credit accounts.

Taking a peek at your own credit can also be a great motivator if you’re working on paying down debt. Being able to track positive changes in your score from month to month can give you a mental boost so it’s easier to keep chipping away at the balances. A soft inquiry doesn’t have any effect whatsoever on your credit score.

These kinds of inquiries can show up on the version of your credit report that you see but they’re not visible to lenders. Soft inquiries don’t factor in to your credit score calculation in any way. Hard inquiries, on the other hand, can linger on your credit report for 24 months.

The good news is they only count towards your credit score calculation for the first 12 months. Even though each inquiry takes less than five points off your score, you shouldn’t go crazy with new credit applications. Applying for three or four credit cards or loans within a short span of time could send your score spiraling downward.

Not only that, but it sends a signal to lenders that you may be desperate to borrow money, which makes you look like more of a credit risk. If you believe that a person or company has pulled your credit report in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have the right to dispute it to try and have it erased from your report. To do so, you’d need to contact the individual or organization who reported the inquiry directly to request that they remove the inquiry.

You can also dispute the inquiry with the credit reporting bureau that’s listing it on your credit report. Just be prepared to back up your claim with proof that you didn’t authorize the credit check in the first place. Disputing inquiries can be time-consuming but it can help to reverse any damage to your score they may have caused. Checking your credit regularly is a smart move if your goal is maintaining a healthy credit score. The best part is, keeping an eye on your credit doesn’t have to cost a thing.