Checking your credit report on a regular basis is an important part of maintaining your financial health. Reviewing your report allows you to see what lenders are saying about you while also staying on top of your payment history. In addition, it can alert you to any potential fraud problems or misreporting of information.

However, some consumers don’t check their report in fear that it will affect their credit score. According to the experts at the Equifax Finance Blog in the article “

How Pulling Your Credit Report Impacts Your Credit Score, and Other Credit Score Facts,” pulling you credit report will result in an inquiry on your credit report, put it will not negatively impact your credit score. In fact, the experts from Equifax recommend checking your credit report on a regular basis so monitoring your financial accounts becomes more of a habit.

Any request for your credit score is known as an inquiry, but not all of them affect your credit score. Soft inquiries do not negatively affect your credit score, and these happen when you check your own credit report, when account monitoring requests are made or when promotional inquiries are made. Soft inquiries are only visible to you and stay on the report for 12 to 24 months.

Hard inquiries, which occur when a possible lender reviews your credit history because you have applied for a new line of credit, affect your credit score in a negative manner. These inquiries stay on your report up to 24 months.

If your credit score is fluctuating, it may be because of your credit behavior. For three tips to help you build a solid credit history, continue reading the full article on the Equifax Finance Blog, which also contains information on taxes, retirement, insurance and more.