In a tough economy, you can't be too careful with your credit.

    I recently posted on the topic of identity theft which got me thinking about credit history. I also mentioned in that post about the people who cover the pinpad when entering their number to prevent me from seeing their PIN.
    One of the things I am supposed to do at my side job is offer our store's credit card. Lately it has been a struggle to get people to sign up. Here is a short list of rejections we get on a daily basis:

• "My credit isn't good enough"
• "I don't want it to show up on my credit report because it will lower my score."
• "The interest rate is too high"

    Let me explain for you mommies out there a little about how that works! I will go in order of the list. Yes your credit score does matter when applying for a line of credit. However, companies are still giving credit! They understand that times are tough and we still need to take care of our families! Sure they want to know that you are going to pay your bill (and pay it on time). As long as you are paying your bills you should be OK. Most likely those will less than great credit could get a lower limit. I believe that most of the people who say that don't actually know their credit score. 

    Every time you apply for a line of credit it does show up on your credit report. Does it have a negative impact on your actual credit score? It only shows up on your credit report as an inquiry. I checked my credit report and noticed that EVERY MONTH there was a credit "inquiry" from Capital One. If you get a credit offer in the mail all the time like I do, guess what, they have already run a credit inquiry! I thought to myself "I didn't give them permission to do that!" So I took a little time to contact them and tell them to take me off of their lists! I would highly recommend checking your free credit score to see who is viewing your history! So to answer the question at hand, it will show on your credit history but it will not bring your score down any more than another company that is checking it regularly without you even knowing!

    Interest rates are on the rise. That is not going to change for a while, unfortunately. When I hear this response I really want to say to them "It's no higher than the cards you already have!" There's really no way around this, if you want a company to lend you money, essentially, they are going to make sure they get it back promptly. It isn't necessarily about making you pay more, but about motivating you to pay it back sooner! (Of course not everyone does and they do make a large sum of money on this high interest) 

    Bottomline: If you are concerned enough to cover your PIN at the store you should be concerned enough to check your credit score regularly. It could save your bottomline in the end!

    Thanks for reading my post, I know it is a little off topic but I really feel like this is something not enough people are taking care of! I hope you learned something or are motivated to check for yourself!

This is a sponsored post for freescore.com. I have connected with them through Blogsvertise. While I will receive some compensation for this post, the opinions stated are 100% mine.