Your Credit Score Advise

Does it affect your FICO Score?

Anytime your credit report is pulled, including when you order a copy of your credit report directly from the credit reporting agency, an inquiry is added to your report. Only some of those inquiries appear to creditors and therefore impact your credit score.

Inquiries that were made for credit cards or loans for which you applied will be shown to creditors and are counted in a credit score.

Inquiries added when you request a copy of your own credit report or when an employer checks your credit report do not appear to creditors and will not affect your credit score.

Does Co-Signing on a loan affect your Credit Score?

Absolutely. By cosigning, you are accepting full responsibility for the debt if the other person does not pay as agreed. A cosigned account will appear on both your credit history and the other person's. All loans and credit card accounts that appear on your credit report will impact credit scores.

Do Lenders pull from all three credit reporting agencies?

Not always. Most mortgage lenders will look at reports from all three credit reporting agencies and credit scores calculated using information from each, but other lenders may use reports and scores from two or just one of the credit reporting agencies.

Financial Empowerment Network Team and Prime Financial Credit Services