What is a Credit Score?
Financing requires entering a relationship with a lender who trusts you’ll make your payments in full, and on time. For lenders to feel confident you’ll make your payments on time; they’ll look at your credit score prior to issuing a loan. Those three digits pulled from your credit report are a summary of your credit management habits and help lenders determine how risky it would be to loan you money.
Credit Score Check
There are two ways to check your credit score: a hard credit check and a soft credit check.
Hard Credit Check
If you’ve formally applied for financing before, then you may be familiar with a hard credit check. During a hard credit check lenders will pull your credit score and make an official note of it on your credit report. They look at things like how you’ve managed credit in the past, if you’ve paid your bills on time and if you have any flags on your credit report. Part of the hard pull requires looking at how much credit you have access to as well.
Soft Credit Check
A soft credit check happens when your credit is reviewed as part of a background check. It’s a preliminary pull to see if you qualify for certain offers, and this type of check doesn’t impact your credit score.
Free Credit Report
Curious about your credit score? Try these two platforms to generate your free credit score and stay on top of it!
Borrowell is a Canadian platform that allows users to pull their credit score in under 3 minutes. This platform can perform a soft credit check without impacting your credit score for simply inquiring.
Credit Karma is another great platform to find your credit score for free. In addition to learning your credit score, you can also take advantage of free credit monitoring and helpful articles on how to maximize your score.
What’s a Good Credit Score?
According to Equifax, there are five tiers of credit scores:
If your credit score is sitting between 670 –739, then you’re considered in “good standing.” Anything above 739 will have most lenders pleased to work with you as you’ve demonstrated a proven track record of managing credit in the past.
However, don’t panic if your credit score falls within the “fair” or “poor” category. There are a few things you can do to help increase your credit score and rebuild trust with future lenders.
How to Maintain a Good Credit Score
Achieving and maintaining a good credit score requires consistency. Implement these 5 tips into your financial practices to help ensure your credit score is as high as possible!
Make your payments on time, every time.
Increase your credit limit within reason, whenever possible.
Use your credit card for small purchases and don’t carry a balance.
Use your credit wisely.
Limit your number of hard credit score checks.
Loans for Bad Credit
There’s a common misconception that having a low credit score means you can’t quality for financing. In many cases, loans can still be granted with certain parameters. If you have a bad credit score, don’t feel discouraged.
The best thing you can do is reach out and get the ball rolling on your motor sports finance application. If you’re in the market for a new powersports toy or watercraft, reach out to our friendly, talented team of finance managers who will help clarify exactly what you can qualify for!