Your credit score is more than just a number — it’s a key indicator of your financial health. A strong score opens doors to better loan terms, lower interest rates, and more financial freedom. A poor score, on the other hand, can limit your options.
That’s why monitoring your credit regularly — knowing where your score stands, when it changes, and why — is essential for building and maintaining good credit habits.
📊 Our Credit Monitoring Survey: What Americans Know (and Don’t Know) About Credit
We surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults to understand how people track their credit, how often they check their scores and reports, and what kind of impact that monitoring has had on their financial lives.
🔑 Key Findings:
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Credit knowledge is low: Only 9% of respondents could correctly identify all five factors that make up a credit score.
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Gen Z is the least informed: 21% of Gen Z adults don’t know their credit score — the highest of any generation.
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Many aren’t checking their score: Nearly 1 in 4 Americans haven’t checked their credit score in the past year, and 1 in 6 say they don’t know how.
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Monitoring works: 60% of people who check their score regularly say it’s improved as a result.
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Fraud detection: 22% of respondents caught a credit error or fraud by checking their score.
🕵️ Why Regular Credit Monitoring Matters
Monitoring your credit helps you:
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Spot mistakes or signs of identity theft early
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Understand how your financial habits impact your score
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Build a stronger credit profile over time
Even though weekly credit reports and free score tracking tools are widely available, 24% of Americans haven’t checked their score in the last 12 months.
Top Reasons People Don’t Check Their Credit:
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💰 Think it costs money (many options are free)
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⚠️ Believe checking will lower their score (it won’t)
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❌ Think they don’t have credit (which can still hurt your financial standing)
🔄 Soft vs. Hard Inquiries: Clearing the Confusion
One major misconception is that checking your own credit score hurts your credit. That’s false.
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Soft inquiries: You checking your own credit — no impact
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Hard inquiries: A lender checks your score during a credit application — may slightly lower your score
Despite this, 23% of non-checkers mistakenly think checking their score will hurt it.
📆 How Often Are People Checking Their Scores?
Among those who monitor their credit:
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95% check their score multiple times per year
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18% check weekly
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29% check every few weeks
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78% also review their full credit report regularly
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31% check their report every few weeks
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💡 Tip: Checking your score monthly is a great habit. It helps you catch issues early and see how your financial behavior is affecting your credit.
🧰 How Are People Monitoring Their Credit?
Here’s how Americans are keeping an eye on their credit:
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72% use free credit monitoring from their bank or credit card company
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26% use a free service received after a data breach
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22% use AnnualCreditReport.com for weekly free reports
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Fewer people pay for credit monitoring — and in most cases, they don’t need to
With free services like Creditvana, you don’t have to pay to stay informed and protected.
📈 The Results: Monitoring Helps Improve Credit
People who check their credit see real benefits:
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60% said their score improved after they started monitoring it
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37% saw a slight improvement
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23% saw a major increase
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22% caught fraud, identity theft, or errors
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Only 5% saw their score drop after monitoring
Bottom line? 95% of people who track their credit score say it either improved or stayed steady.
👥 Generational Credit Gaps
Monitoring habits vary by age:
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Only 8% of Baby Boomers don’t know their credit score
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21% of Gen Z say the same — the highest of any generation
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Gen X and Millennials fall in the middle, with 12% not knowing their score
The earlier you start monitoring, the better your chances of building strong credit for the future.
🧠 How Well Do Americans Understand Credit?
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Only 9% correctly identified all five key credit score factors:
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Payment history
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Amounts owed
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Length of credit history
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New credit
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Credit mix
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Many confused FICO or Credit Karma as credit bureaus, when in fact the three major bureaus are:
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Experian
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Equifax
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TransUnion
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🚀 Take Control with Creditvana
Creditvana makes it easy to track your credit health, understand what’s driving your score, and take action to improve it — all for free.
✅ Free Experian® Vantage 3.0 credit score
✅ Updated every 14 days
✅ No credit card required
✅ Tools to help you boost your score
🔓 Start monitoring your credit today — with Creditvana.
