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Baseline is a private demonstration page, not a credit bureau, lender or monitoring service, and is not affiliated with any company named on it. Your credit reports are free from the official source linked below.
Credit monitoring
A credit score is a position on a scale, not a grade
Monitoring tells you when your file changes. It does not change the file, and it is not the same thing as a credit freeze. Here is what the number is made of, which version a lender actually sees, and how to read the report it comes from — which is free every week.
The one-page score sheet
What the five factors weigh, the score bands, and the three things that move a number fastest. One page, no provider names.
Both FICO and VantageScore run 300 to 850
300–579
Poor
Most mainstream credit is declined or priced very high.
580–669
Fair
Approvals happen, usually with deposits or higher rates.
670–739
Good
The band most US adults sit in. Ordinary terms.
740–850
Very good to exceptional
Best pricing. Above roughly 780 the gains flatten.
Band names and cutoffs differ slightly between scoring models and between lenders, so treat them as neighbourhoods rather than as lines. Nobody is refused at 669 and approved at 670.
What moves it
Five things are scored, and two of them are most of the answer
These are the published FICO weightings. Everything sold as a “credit hack” is really one of these five, and the first two are two-thirds of the score between them.
35%
Payment history
Whether you paid on time, and how late you were when you did not. A single payment 30 days late and reported is the most damaging ordinary event on this list — far more so than a high balance.
30%
Amounts owed
Mostly your revolving balance against your limit. This is the fastest-moving factor on the list: paying a card down before the statement closes can change the number within a cycle, because the balance reported is the one on the statement date.
15%
Length of credit history
The age of your oldest account and the average age of all of them. It is why closing the card you have had longest can cost you, and why there is no way to hurry this factor.
10%
New credit
Recent applications and hard inquiries. Several in a short window read as pressure — though rate shopping for a single mortgage or car loan is usually bundled and counted once.
10%
Credit mix
Whether you have both revolving accounts and instalment loans. The smallest factor, and not worth taking on debt to improve.
The part marketing leaves out
The score you are shown is often not the score they use
There is no single credit score. There are dozens of models across two families and three bureaus, and the one on your app is frequently not the one a lender pulls.
Two families
FICO and VantageScore
Both run 300–850, both weigh similar things, and both produce different numbers from the same file. Most lenders use a FICO model; many free consumer apps show VantageScore.
Many versions
Industry-specific models
Mortgage, card and auto lending each use their own tuned versions, some of them years old. An auto lender may score the same file differently from a card issuer on the same day.
Three files
Three bureaus, three answers
Equifax, Experian and TransUnion each hold a separate file. A creditor that reports to only two of them makes your third score genuinely different, not wrong.
None of this makes a free score useless — a number that moves in the right direction is still a signal, and the underlying report is identical whichever model reads it. It does mean a lender quoting a different figure is usually not a mistake, and that chasing a single app's number to a round figure is chasing one model's opinion.
Free every week
The report matters more than the score
A score is a summary of the report. Errors, unfamiliar accounts and stale negatives all live in the report, and that is the only document you can actually dispute.
Accounts you do not recognise
The clearest early sign of identity theft, and the reason to read all three files rather than one — a fraudulent account may be reported to only one bureau.
Balances and limits that look wrong
A limit reported lower than it is inflates your utilisation and drags the score down for a reason that is not true.
Late payments you believe were on time
Check the date reported, not just the fact. Payment history is the heaviest factor, so a wrongly reported late is the most valuable correction on the page.
Negatives that should have aged off
Most negative entries fall off after about seven years; a Chapter 7 bankruptcy can stay for ten. Anything older than that is disputable on age alone.
AnnualCreditReport.com — the official source
If something is wrong
Disputing, in the order that works
Get all three reports before you write anything
The same error is often on more than one file and sometimes on only one. Disputing what you have not read wastes the first thirty days.
Dispute with the bureau and the furnisher
The bureau holds the file; the company that reported the entry is the furnisher. Writing to only one commonly gets the entry reinstated after it is removed.
Put it in writing, with copies
Keep the original documents and send copies. Written disputes create a record; a phone conversation leaves you with nothing to point at later.
Expect roughly thirty days
Bureaus generally have about thirty days to investigate under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, extendable in some circumstances. Diarise it and follow up rather than assuming silence means success.
Ask for a corrected copy
When something is removed, get the updated report and check the score-relevant fields actually changed. Removal from one field and not another is common.
Straight answers
Questions people actually ask
- Does checking my own score lower it?
- No. Looking at your own file is a soft inquiry and is not scored. Only a hard inquiry — a lender pulling your file because you applied for something — is, and even then the effect is small and short-lived.
- Does monitoring improve my score?
- No. It watches the file and tells you when it changes. Improvement comes from what is in the file: paying on time and lowering revolving balances. Anyone implying the watching itself helps is selling you something.
- Is monitoring the same as a freeze?
- No, and they solve different problems. Monitoring tells you after a new account appears. A freeze stops it being opened at all, and it is free at all three bureaus. If you have to pick one, the freeze does more.
- How fast can a score move?
- Balances can show up within a billing cycle, which is why paying a card down before the statement closes is the quickest lever. Payment history and account age move over months and years, and there is no way to shortcut either.
- Should I close a card I do not use?
- Usually not, if it has no fee. Closing it removes its limit from your utilisation and eventually ages out of your history, so it can push the number the wrong way for two separate reasons.
- What about “credit repair” companies?
- They dispute entries on your behalf — something you can do yourself for nothing. Accurate negative information cannot be removed by anyone, and any firm promising otherwise is describing something that is not possible.
Go straight to the source
The official pages, all free
- AnnualCreditReport.comThe only federally authorised source for your free reports.
- CFPB — credit reports and scoresThe regulator's own plain explanations and dispute guidance.
- CFPB — file a complaintIf a bureau or furnisher will not fix a genuine error.
- IdentityTheft.govIf an account on your report is not yours.
- Equifax security freezeFree freeze — worth doing before any subscription.
- MyFICO — score versionsHow the models differ, from the company that makes them.
One email, then we leave you alone
Take the sheet, then go and read your actual report
The sheet is one page: the five weightings, the bands, and what moves fastest. The report it explains is free every week from the official site.
The one-page score sheet
One email with the sheet. You choose below whether we may send anything else.