There are a multitude of things you can do to damage your credit score. Anything from renting a car to cutting up a credit card has the potential to affect your credit to some degree, depending on your situation. But there are also some areas that surprisingly do not affect your score, despite what is commonly thought.
Checking your credit report as often as you would like has no impact on your credit score. In fact, under federal law, you are entitled to a free credit report from all three bureaus once a year. So check as often as you’d like, utilizing some of the many credit score apps that exist if you so choose.
Under a recent law change, all three credit bureaus no longer collect records from municipalities or municipal courts. This means things such as unpaid library fines, unpaid parking tickets, and civil judgements will not impact your credit score. Keep in mind, though, that not paying these may lead to other non-credit-related problems.
Finally, medical debts can be reported to the credit bureaus, but not before a 180-day waiting period. This is important, as your health insurance company often takes some time before processing some claims.
Whether we like how things work or not in regards to credit, our credit scores affect so many things in our lives, such as our interest rates, our ability to get a credit card, a job, a loan, etc. So it is critical that you are aware of the factors that influence your score, so that you can do everything possible to keep it in the best shape possible.