Bad information about credit scores is widespread. Some myths are harmless — they just don’t help. Others lead people to make decisions that actively damage their scores or cost money. Here are the most common credit score misconceptions and what the evidence actually shows.
Myth 1: Checking Your Own Credit Hurts Your Score
False. Checking your own credit report or score is a soft inquiry. Soft inquiries are not visible to lenders and have no effect on your score. You can check as often as you like. The harm comes from hard inquiries, which occur when lenders pull your credit for an application. These are different.
This myth discourages people from monitoring their reports — which is exactly when errors and fraudulent accounts go undetected. Check your reports regularly.
Myth 2: You Need to Carry a Balance to Build Credit
False. Carrying a balance means paying interest. It does nothing to improve your credit score beyond what paying in full would do. What builds credit is having an active account with on-time payments. You can charge purchases, pay the full balance each month, and build excellent credit while paying zero interest.
This myth is expensive for people who believe it and leave balances on purpose.
Myth 3: A High Income Means a High Credit Score
False. Income is not a factor in credit score calculation. FICO and VantageScore models use only the information in your credit report — payment history, utilization, account age, credit mix, and recent inquiries. Someone earning $200,000 with multiple missed payments and high utilization can have a worse score than someone earning $40,000 with a clean payment history.
Lenders consider income separately, in addition to credit score, when evaluating ability to repay — but the score itself doesn’t care what you earn.
Myth 4: Closing Old Credit Cards Improves Your Score
Usually false. Closing a card removes its credit limit from your total available credit, which increases your utilization rate. It also removes the account’s age from your active accounts, potentially lowering your average age. For old cards with no annual fee, keeping them open — even unused — typically benefits your score more than closing them.
The exception: if a card charges a significant annual fee that you’re not recouping in benefits, canceling may be worth the temporary score impact.
Myth 5: Paying Collections Removes Them from Your Report
Usually false. Paying a collection account updates its status to “paid collection” — which is better than unpaid, but the account still appears on your report for 7 years from the original delinquency date. The negative mark remains.
Some collection agencies will agree to a “pay for delete” — removing the account from your report in exchange for payment. Get any such agreement in writing before paying. This practice is technically against credit bureau guidelines, but it does occur. It’s worth negotiating but not guaranteed.
Myth 6: All Credit Scores Are the Same
False. There are multiple credit scoring models — different versions of FICO (FICO 8, FICO 9, FICO Auto Score, FICO Bankcard Score) and VantageScore versions (3.0, 4.0). Different lenders use different models. Your mortgage lender may use FICO 5 from Equifax while your credit card issuer uses FICO 8 from TransUnion.
This means the score you see on a monitoring app may differ from the score a specific lender pulls. The directional indicators are reliable — if your score is improving or declining on one model, it’s generally doing the same on others. But the exact number varies.
Myth 7: Getting Married Merges Your Credit Scores
False. Credit scores are individual. Marriage doesn’t merge your credit history with your spouse’s. Joint accounts you open together will appear on both reports, but your existing separate accounts remain yours. A spouse’s poor credit doesn’t lower your score; a spouse’s excellent credit doesn’t raise yours.
When applying for joint credit (like a mortgage), lenders typically use the lower of the two scores or the middle score of the borrower with lower credit. Each person’s credit profile remains independent.
Myth 8: A Credit Repair Company Can Do Something You Can’t
Mostly false. Legitimate negative information (real late payments, real collections) cannot legally be removed from your credit report by anyone — including credit repair companies. Disputing inaccurate information is free and available directly through each bureau’s online portal. You can do everything a legitimate credit repair company does for free.
Some credit repair companies charge significant fees for services you can do yourself. Companies that promise to remove accurate negative information or create a “new credit identity” are operating illegally.
Accurate information about how credit scores work helps you make better decisions — particularly around which actions to take and which to skip. The five scoring factors are public, well-documented, and straightforward to act on without paying anyone for assistance.
