If you were to take an informal poll of consumers, the overwhelming majority of the people you spoke to would immediately recognize the importance of maintaining a solid credit score or working to improve a poor credit score. Questions that go beyond those fairly obvious truths, however, are likely to reveal some of the most common misconceptions held by consumers and will surely demonstrate that greater educational efforts are necessary to assist consumers as they seek to improve their credit score.

CreditUpdates.com is seeking to assist consumers through the use of its informative services regarding credit scores and reports while also providing monitoring, alerts and fraud resolution services. The company also encourages all consumers to become better educated regarding the factors that influence their respective credit scores so that corrective action can be taken through the use of the kinds of services offered by CreditUpdates.com.

Among some of the more common misconceptions regarding a credit score is the influence of applying for credit, which a large percentage of consumers believe has a sizable impact on their score. While it does have an impact, it is a relatively negligible one that checks in at just a few points. The other common misconception involves the eradication of any outstanding debt, with consumers generally believing that paying off their overdue debts has an immediate and fairly sizable impact on their score. The truth is that it will take some time before a credit score will reflect the elimination of these debts, as the consumer must also reestablish a positive payment history on a consistent basis and over a relatively lengthy period of time.