Last September I wrote about a zero interest credit card offer I took advantage of. I took the money and bought a CD, pocketing $1000 interest in 6 months time. I received a few comments and questions, centering around how this would impact my credit score. I offered a chart showing how the score is impacted, in general, but couldn’t say for sure the precise impact of any one action on the score. That would take regular access to the score itself, which through MyFICO, would cost nearly $50/yr. Now, I discovered a free way to have regular access. It seems that WAMU (Washington Mutual) offers such access to their credit card holders. The card has no annual fee, and you just click through a link to see your score. They offer an option to get email notification if your score moves by more than 20 points. Combine this with a regular request for your full credit report, and you have a good plan to monitor your credit health
Joe