Credit scores generate an impressive amount of confident, well-meaning bad advice — passed between friends, family, and coworkers who genuinely believe what they’re saying, even when it’s flatly wrong. Because credit scoring feels a bit mysterious to begin with, these myths tend to spread easily and stick around long after they’ve been debunked by actual credit bureau guidance.
Let’s clear up the ones that cause the most confusion.
Myth: Checking Your Own Credit Hurts Your Score
This is probably the most persistent myth out there, and it’s simply not true. Checking your own credit score or report is called a “soft inquiry,” and it has zero effect on your score, no matter how often you do it. The type of check that can slightly lower your score temporarily is a “hard inquiry,” which only happens when a lender checks your credit because you’ve actively applied for new credit. Check your own score as often as you’d like — it costs you nothing.
Myth: Carrying a Balance Improves Your Score
A surprising number of people believe you need to carry a balance month to month, rather than paying in full, to “build credit” or improve your score. This isn’t true and actually costs you money in unnecessary interest for no benefit. Paying your full statement balance every month builds credit just as effectively as carrying a balance — the only difference is you’re not paying interest on money you didn’t need to borrow in the first place.
Myth: Closing Old Cards Always Helps Your Score
The instinct to close an old, unused credit card feels responsible, but it often works against you. Closing an account can shorten your average credit history length and increase your overall credit utilization ratio if that card had a meaningful limit, both of which can lower your score rather than improve it. Unless a card charges a fee you can’t justify, it’s usually better to keep old accounts open, even if you rarely use them.
Myth: Your Income Affects Your Credit Score
Income doesn’t appear on your credit report at all, and it has no direct effect on your credit score. Lenders may separately consider your income when deciding whether to approve you for a specific loan or credit limit, but that’s a different evaluation from your credit score itself, which is based purely on your borrowing and repayment history.
Myth: You Only Have One Credit Score
Many people assume there’s a single, universal credit score, when in reality there are multiple scoring models, and even within the same model, your score can vary slightly between the three major credit bureaus based on what information each one has on file. The score you see through one source might differ slightly from what a specific lender actually pulls when you apply for credit.
Myth: Married Couples Share a Credit Score
Marriage doesn’t merge your credit histories or scores in any way. Each spouse maintains an entirely separate credit profile, unless you open joint accounts together, in which case that specific joint account appears on both people’s individual reports. One spouse’s poor credit history doesn’t directly drag down the other’s score.
Myth: Paying Off a Collection Account Removes It Immediately
While paying off a collection account is generally a good idea and can sometimes result in a “paid” status update, the account typically still remains on your credit report for up to seven years from the original delinquency date, regardless of whether it’s eventually paid. It will show as paid rather than unpaid, which does help, but it doesn’t disappear entirely just because the balance is settled.
Myth: You Need to Be In Debt to Have Good Credit
Having debt isn’t required to have a good credit score, but having some active credit history is. A person who has never used any form of credit at all won’t have a bad score — they’ll simply have no score, since there’s no history to evaluate. Using credit responsibly, even lightly, is what builds a score; carrying unnecessary debt is not required to achieve that.
Myth: A Big Purchase Automatically Tanks Your Score
Making a large purchase on a credit card doesn’t directly hurt your score just because the dollar amount is large — what matters is how that purchase affects your overall credit utilization ratio relative to your limit, and whether you pay it off as planned. A large purchase paid off promptly has minimal lasting effect on your score.
Why These Myths Matter to Clear Up
Believing inaccurate information about credit can lead to genuinely counterproductive decisions — carrying unnecessary debt, closing accounts that were actually helping your score, or avoiding checking your own credit out of an unfounded fear of hurting it. Understanding what actually affects your score, rather than what sounds plausible secondhand, puts you in a much better position to make decisions that genuinely improve it over time.