CreditSmart

CreditSmart is a comprehensive Credit Score program offered by Hughes, that helps you stay on top of your credit. You get your latest credit score and report, an understanding of key factors that impact the score, and can see the most up to date offers that can help reduce your interest costs or lower your monthly payments.

No. Checking CreditSmart is always a “soft inquiry”, which does not affect your credit score.  Typically, lenders use ‘hard inquiries’ to make decisions about your credit worthiness when you apply for loans.

No. CreditSmart is entirely free to Hughes members, and no credit card information is required to register.

CreditSmart makes its best effort to show you the most relevant information from your credit report. If you think that some of the information is wrong or inaccurate, we encourage you to take advantage of obtaining free credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com, and then pursuing with each bureau individually.

Each bureau has its own process for correcting inaccurate information but every user can “File a Dispute” by clicking on the “Start a Dispute” link under the Credit Report section of CreditSmart.

CreditSmart uses bank level encryption and security measures to keep your data safe and secure. Your personal information is never shared with or sold to a third party.

CreditSmart pulls your credit profile from TransUnion, one of the three major credit reporting bureaus, and uses VantageScore 3.0, a credit scoring model developed collaboratively by the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This model seeks to make score information more uniform between the three bureaus to provide consumers a better picture of their credit health.

As long as you regularly access online banking, your credit score will be updated every 7-days and displayed within your online banking screen. You also have the ability to refresh your credit score and full credit report every 24-hours by clicking “Refresh Score” by navigating to the detailed Credit Score Dashboard from within online banking.

The Score Simulator is an interactive tool that allows you to select various actions you may take and see how your score could be affected. Different actions, like paying off a credit card balance might make your score move up or down.

Using the simulator does not affect your actual credit score.

Yes. After you have enrolled, CreditSmart will monitor and send email alerts when there’s been a change to your credit profile. When applicable, you can also find these monitoring alerts within your online banking account.

A FICO Score is a specific type of credit score created by the Fair Isaac Corporation. "Credit Score" is a general term that can refer to different scoring models, including FICO and others like VantageScore.

FICO Scores are credit scores, but not all credit scores are FICO Scores. Lenders may use different models, so your score can vary depending on which one is used.

You can pull your free credit report from many online platforms. Once pulled, you can initiate disputes online that are sent to the lender reporting the incorrect information.