Requesting A Copy Of Your Own Credit Report Won't Lower Your Score

One of the leading reasons why people hesitate to request a copy of their own credit report is that they believe that this request alone will lower their score. This is simply not the case, as there are mechanisms in place at credit reporting agencies to ensure that this does not happen.

Thankfully, one of the leading credit reporting agencies in America (Equifax) recently came out supporting the idea that people should request their credit report regularly, to ensure that it is kept up to date and correct. They clearly stated during this announcement that doing so would not have any negative impact whatsoever on that person's credit score.

Proof That Your Requests Don't Matter

To prove that a request on our own credit report did not have any effect on the score, we continually requested a copy of the report over a two-month period. This meant that we had to request a new copy of the report every three days - and keep an eye on the score each time.

After the two-month period, we noticed the following things:

• Absolutely no change to the credit score.
• No indication from the company that our regular requests were negative.
• Excellent support every time we made a request.

Of course, if you have requested a copy of your credit score before, you will know that you only get one opportunity to do this each year for free. After this, you need to pay for each report that you receive.

Needless to say, this experiment did cost us a fair bit of money. However, at the end of the day, requesting a credit score every three days is not exactly a realistic reflection of how a consumer monitors their credit.

Third Party Requesting Services

Another query along the same lines is whether or not using a third party to request a copy of your credit score will have a negative impact. After all, this third-party may be mistaken for a financial institution, and therefore the score may drop after a number of requests.

This is simply not the case. Third-party credit requesting companies use a special code when they request information, to mimic the way that you yourself would have had to request the details. Therefore, in the overall scheme of things, there is absolutely no negative effect to your credit score.