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Getting reports from a credit monitoring service won't hurt your credit scores

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Topics addressed on March 4, 2009:

Getting reports from a credit monitoring service won't hurt your credit scores

Dear Max,

I've heard that subscribing to a credit service that checks my credit daily or weekly can negatively impact my credit score. Can you tell me if having these non-agency credit monitoring agencies can put me in any jeopardy?

- LCI

Dear LCI,

Inquiries for credit monitoring purposes will not affect your credit scores or lending decisions. When credit monitoring services review your credit report a “soft” inquiry is added to your credit report.

Such inquiries are not shared with lenders and do not affect your credit scores. They only appear on your credit report when you get it through the credit monitoring service to which you subscribe, or when you request your report directly from the credit reporting company.

The credit monitoring service inquiries are the same as if you were asking for your own report, so you don’t need to worry about them preventing you from getting credit.

Thanks for asking.

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