Frequently Asked Questions

A credit score is a number that can range from 300 to 900 and is based on the information in your credit report – including key factors that lenders may want to know before they offer you credit, like your payment history, the amount of credit you have available, the number and age of your open accounts and your recent credit activity.

Generally speaking, when it comes to your credit score, the higher the number, the better, but your score can vary depending on which credit reporting agency calculates it and the specific model(s) they’re using. In addition, not all lenders will pull your score from the same source, and they may consider things other than your score (like the information you submit on your application form) when deciding whether to extend credit – but knowing your score is a good step towards understanding your credit health.

A credit score is a number that lenders use to quickly summarize your credit history and determine how responsible you are with credit. The score may be used to decide whether a lender will do business with you, how much it will cost and what options they can offer. Your credit score can affect the interest rates you get, your lending and credit options, your ability to rent property and your eligibility for certain jobs.

Your credit report summarizes your credit history with credit cards and loans, and can include information on when you opened your account(s) and when you’ve made your payments, among other things. You can request a version of your credit report – known as a Consumer Disclosure – from TransUnion®. Although you can get a copy of your Consumer Disclosure free of charge, it won’t include your credit score.

You can get a copy of your credit report from TransUnion. Just visit TransUnion’s website for more details.

By law, negative information can only stay on your credit report for a certain period of time. Depending on what province you live in, the maximum amount of time for most negative information is six or seven years but can be up to 14 years.

If you’ve reviewed your credit report and see something that you don’t think is accurate, you can file a dispute with the lender that reported the information in question. If that doesn’t resolve the issue, you can file a secondary dispute with the applicable credit reporting agency. For more information, please visit the TransUnion website.

Credit scores go up and down over time. If you're seeing a small change in your score, it's likely nothing to worry about. However, if you're seeing a big change in your score that you weren't expecting, you may have been affected by a change that TransUnion made on April 12, 2018 to CreditVision®, which is the model TransUnion uses to calculate the credit score shown in Credit Keeper. For more information, please visit the TransUnion website. Big, unexpected changes in your credit score could also be an early indicator of fraud. Be sure to review the factors that impact your score to see if there's been any activity on your credit file that you don't recognize.