Even More Stuff You Might Not Know About Credit Scores | Credit ...

June 1st, 2012

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We?re doing the best to cover all of the little-known facts about credit scores. We?ve written on it twice now (3 Things You Might Not Know About Credit Scores & 3 More Things You Might Not Know About Credit Scores), and we?re back again because we know you can?t get enough. So here are some more things you might not know about credit scores.

Opening a bank account could hurt your score.

Some banks will perform a hard credit inquiry when you open a new account. This credit inquiry will ding your score a few points. It?s not a big deal, but it?s something to be aware of, particularly if you?ll be applying for new credit shortly after you open a new bank account. That hard inquiry will show on your credit report and could keep you from getting approved; too many hard inquiries show that you?re desperate for credit. To see if your bank might initiate a hard inquiry with a new account request, check out this Consumerist article, which lists known hard credit inquiry scenarios.

Your age and marital status aren?t used to calculate your credit score.

The Second Annual Survey of Consumer Knowledge about Credit Scores, conducted by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), revealed that more than half of those surveyed incorrectly believed that your age and marital status factor into your credit score. These pieces of information aren?t included in your credit score at all, so they can?t work for or against you when judging your creditworthiness.

Your score estimates the chance that you?ll repay a loan.

This seems obvious, doesn?t it? Well, not for 56 percent of us, according to the CFA survey. Just 44 percent of Americans understand that a credit score is meant to give lenders an idea of whether or not you?ll repay a loan, instead of measuring the amount of debt or financial resources a consumer has. This is good news for those folks who carry large amounts of debt, but also manage to pay all of their bills on time.

Want more credit-related reading? Check out the rest of the Credit Karma Blog and our Credit Articles.

Have a Karmic Day!

Bethy Hardeman, Social Media Maven

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