First Financial Northwest Bank

Frequently Asked Questions Details

Credit Score

  1. The Credit Score program, offered by First Financial Northwest Bank, helps you stay on top of your credit. You get your latest credit score and report, an understanding of key factors that impact your score, and can see the most up to date offers that can help reduce your interest costs. With this program, you will always know where you stand with your credit and how First Financial Northwest Bank can help save you money.

    Credit Score also monitors your credit report daily and informs you by email if there are any big changes detected such as: a new account being opened, change in address or employment, a delinquency has been reported or an injury has been made. Monitoring helps users keep an eye out for identity theft.

  2. Your loans with us will appear in within Credit Score over the next few weeks.

  3. The Credit Score Report provides all the information you would find on your credit file including a list of open loans, accounts and credit inquiries.  You will also be able to see details on your payment history, credit utilization and public records that show up on your account. Also, when you check your credit file, there will be no impact to your score.

  4. There are three major credit-reporting bureaus—Equifax, Experian and Transunion—and two scoring models—FICO or VantageScore—that determine credit scores. Financial institutions use different bureaus, as well as their own scoring models. Over 200 factors of a credit report may be taken into account when calculating a score and each model may weigh credit factors differently, so no scoring model is completely identical. No matter what credit bureau or credit scoring model is used, consumers do fall into specific credit ranges:

    Excellent 781–850, Good 661-780, Fair 601-660, Unfavorable 501-600, Bad Below 500

  5. Credit Score 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 “Dispute” link within their Credit Score site. However, The Federal Trade Commission website offers step-by-step instructions on how to contact the bureaus and correct errors.

  6. As long as you are a regular online banking user, your credit score will be updated every month and displayed in your online banking screen. You will also receive an email with the updated information monthly. You can click “refresh score” as frequently as every day by navigating to the detailed Credit Score site from within online banking.

  7. No, Credit Score is a free service to help you understand your credit health, how you make improvements in your score and ways you can save money on your loans with First Financial Northwest Bank.

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

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

  10.  No. Credit Score is entirely free and no credit card information is required to register.

  11. Credit Score 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

  12. No, First Financial Northwest Bank uses its own lending criteria for approving loans.

  13. Credit Score can help you manage your credit so when it comes time to borrow for a big-ticket purchase—like buying a home, car or paying for college—you have a clear picture of your credit health and can qualify for the lowest possible interest rate. You’ll also see offers on how you can save money on your new and existing loans with First Financial Northwest Bank.

  14. Based on your Credit Score information, you may receive First Financial Northwest Bank offers on products that may be of interest to you. In most cases, these offers may have lower interest rates than the products you already have. 

  15. If you access the Credit Score program through your online banking platform, you have to do nothing! Your email address will get updated automatically in Credit Score when you update it in online banking. However, we always encourage you to inform First Financial Northwest Bank of any contact information updates