Myth Busters: Credit Scores

Are you CLUELESS about your credit score?? If you think checking your credit score is bad.... you may be right but not always! I'm gunna break this down real short and sweet for you. There are two types of inquiries (types of credit checks): Soft and Hard *insert joke about soft and hard here*Soft InquiriesThese types of inquiries are when you check it yourself (or a company checks it for you). I use the Mint app for budgeting and I just set it up to give me my credit score. This is a soft inquiry which DOES NOT hurt your credit score. If you do want to check it, just do a quick google search to ensure the way you are searching is a soft inquiry and you should be good.Hard InquiriesThese usually come from you applying for something. Think: Mortgage applications, loan applications, etc. These do hurt your credit score. Usually when you need to apply for something you can't avoid this (if you need a mortgage you need a mortgage). BUT this is why you should be strategic about what sort of credit cards you apply for because they will check your credit and it can affect your score. If you apply for several credit cards and they all get rejected that will not help you.Another super not that fun but super useful fun fact is that if you're trying to close credit cards this can also hurt your credit score!! And avoid closing your oldest credit card because this will bring it down more than the rest. It shortens the length of your active credit history which ain't good my friends.So don't go overboard, but get to know your credit score! The more you know!!!!!!!