Monitor Your Credit: Why Everyone Must do it Regularly

Amir Lehrer — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:52:48 +0000

My score dropped by 32 points because of a mistake last month but was corrected quickly because I monitored my score.

The average person never sees his credit score or finds out about his credit’s health until he is about to make a big purchase such as a car or house or needs to take out a loan. At that point, they are often shocked at what they find out. Any late or missed payments can kill your score but even worse, someone else can be using your information and killing your score for you.
I am proud to say that I have been keeping track of my credit score by monitoring it regularly through free annual credit reports and more recently through Credit Karma, a free online service for monitoring your credit score. About a month ago on Credit Karma, I noticed that my score dropped over 30 points. I always pay my bills on time and in full, so I figured it had to be some sort of mistake.

I immediately called the credit agencies and my credit card companies to figure out what happened and it turned out that I used a department store credit card (to save 5% off my purchase) a month before and haven’t paid my bill yet. I forgot about using the card and the credit card company didn’t put my apartment number on the bill it came back to them. When speaking to them, they realized it was their fault and said that they would correct it with the credit agencies. I was lucky that I caught it right away because if a few months went by, i’m not sure that the company would be so quick to make the changes.
Don’t wait until the last minute to check on your credit’s health. Just like your personal health, it needs regular checkups just to make sure everything is ok.
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Monitor Your Credit: Why Everyone Must do it Regularly