What Matters More: Your Credit Report or Your Credit Score?

What Matters More: Your Credit Report or Your Credit Score

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When creditors, lenders, and other businesses evaluate your credit, they look at one of two things (and sometimes both): your credit report or your credit score. These are two different pieces of your credit picture, so when you're focusing on credit repair, which one should you look at?

Know What's On Your Credit Report

Your credit report holds all the information that determines whether you have good credit or bad credit. It's a report that contains details about your credit accounts like whether you've paid the account on time and whether you've paid off the balance you originally borrowed.

You'll have a hard time repairing your credit if you never pay any attention to your credit report. That's because you won't know what you need to fix. Since your credit report lists the specific accounts that are hurting your credit, it's the first place you should look when you decide you need credit repair.

You can improve your credit score by changing what's listed on your credit report or rather getting the credit bureaus to make the changes. For example, if there are damaging errors on your credit report you can use the credit report dispute process to have these errors removed.

Monitor Your Credit Score

Your credit score is a number that evaluates the information in your credit score. It's a non-subjective way to tell whether you have good credit or bad credit. Credit scores generally range from 300 to 850 and higher scores are better. Checking your credit score lets you know where you stand. You can look at your credit report and see that there's negative information there, but you won't know just how badly that negative information is hurting you until you check your credit report.

Creditors and lenders have different credit score requirements depending on the credit card or loan you're applying for. Generally though, anything below 620 is a bad credit score. Between 620 and 720 is fair and above 720 is considered excellent.

Not only does your credit score help you know where you stand when you get started repairing your credit, it can also help you see if you're making progress. Continue to watch your credit score as you take steps with credit repair and you'll see whether what you're doing is working.

Which is More Important?

Your credit report and your credit score are both important pieces of your credit history, but you couldn't really repair your credit without your credit report. Your credit score is a nice-to-have piece of information that helps you easily gauge where your credit stands. But, your credit score alone won't help you repair your credit it will just tell you whether you need to repair your credit and just how much credit repair you need.

Creditors and lenders use both your report and your score, so it's hard to say that one is more important than the other. Your credit score can't exist without your credit report, but it would take lenders too much time to review each applicant's credit report.

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