This Positive Change Could Make It Easier to Maintain Great Credit

Your credit score is one of those things you may not pay attention to until you're ready to take out a loan or sign up for a credit card. But it's important to know what that number looks like.

Here's something you may find surprising -- your credit report generally will not contain your credit score. You'd think it would, but nope -- that would be too simple. Instead, to find out your credit score, you generally need to log into a bank or credit card account.

Years back, it was common to pay for your credit score. But now, many major banks and credit card issuers will commonly give you access to that number for free.

But even though your credit score may not show up on your credit report, your credit report is still an important thing to read through every so often. And a recent change now makes that even easier.

Credit reports are now available weekly

Before the pandemic, you were entitled to a free copy of your credit report once a year from each reporting bureau -- Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. During the pandemic, there was, unfortunately, a lot of financial fraud. Criminals were quick to take advantage of victims on the receiving end of aid. And policymakers decided to make credit reports available to consumers for free every week to better keep tabs on their borrowing history.

But thankfully, policymakers have since decided to make that change a permanent one. So now, you can access a copy of your credit report for free every week should you so desire. That could, in turn, make it easier to keep tabs on your open accounts and see what your payment history looks like.

Regular access to your credit report could make it easier to spot financial fraud. That's because your credit report will contain a list of your open loans and credit card accounts. If you spot one you don't recognize, you'll know to investigate and see if someone has opened a bogus account in your name.

Do you need to check your credit report every week?

The reality is that while the option to access your credit report every week is helpful and convenient, it's probably not necessary to look at your credit report 52 times during the year. Even if you're following up on an issue -- say, an error you're waiting to have wiped off of your report -- you probably won't need to check every seven days.

But it is a good idea to check your credit report once every three to four months to keep tabs on your open accounts, check on your payment history, and make sure there are no new accounts listed that don't belong there (in other words, fraudulent ones). You may even decide to check your credit report once a month. And if you're willing to put in the time, why not?

Even though your credit report doesn't list your credit score, information on there could clue you in to changes in your score. So if, for example, you see that the balance on one of your credit cards has increased, that could result in a hit to your credit score. Similarly, if you see a late payment flagged on your credit report, you can bet that your score is going to reflect that negative activity.

All told, it's important to keep tabs on your credit report as well as your actual credit score. And thankfully, these days, it's fairly easy to do both.