How Often Should You Check Your Credit Score?

Credit scores are important. There are many situations in life where you may have to go through a credit check: applying to rent an apartment, setting up utility bills, and even getting car insurance, to name just a few. A high credit score can save you money and make your life easier.

There are plenty of free online services you can use to find out your credit score. Many credit card companies also offer free credit score tools to their cardholders.

But some of these services send out notifications all the time. You get an email about every little thing that happens regarding your credit, sometimes as minor as making your credit card payment. How often do you really need to check your credit score? That depends on where it's at and your current goals.

If you're building your credit score, check it monthly

Most credit score services are updated monthly. While you're improving your credit score, that's also how often you should check it. This way, you can make sure it's moving in the right direction.

You'll also be able to review the factors that are positively and negatively affecting your credit score. Some of these can only improve with time. For example, if you're getting started with credit and have a limited payment history, that's not something you can fix overnight. It typically takes at least a year of on-time payments to build a good payment history.

Other factors can be fixed more quickly. If you have a low credit score because you have quite a bit of credit card debt, paying down your balances could have a fast and significant impact on your score.

If you're maintaining your credit score, check it every three to six months

After enough time managing your credit well, you'll reach a point where you don't need to raise your score. You don't need a perfect 850 credit score, either. Once you have a score of at least 760, there's no benefit to going any higher. A score in that range is already good enough to qualify for the best credit cards and the lowest mortgage rates.

Your credit score won't change nearly as much from month to month, so you don't need to check it so often. You can if you want, but it's also fine to dial it back to every three to six months. What you'll probably find is that your score keeps ticking upwards or stays in the same range.

If you get a notification of anything serious, then you should check in to see what happened. For example, if a payment was reported as late, that's something to investigate right away, because it can cause a huge drop in your credit score.

Review your credit two to three months ahead of credit applications

Any time you're going to be applying for credit, make sure your credit's in tip-top shape. This includes applying for credit cards, as well as any of the following:

• Mortgages
• Auto loans
• Personal loans

In addition to checking your credit score, it's also a good idea to pull your credit report. You can get a free credit report every week from the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com to request yours. Review these for errors, because any mistakes could affect your credit score.

Do all this two or three months before applying for credit. If you find any mistakes, you'll have enough time to get them corrected.

When you're building or rebuilding your credit, it makes sense to keep an eye on it. Once you've set yourself up with a high credit score, you can take it easy. As long as you're paying your bills on time and following the same habits as before, there won't be any drastic changes to your credit.