Every question, answered honestly.

iBoost helps by doing the two things that matter most for your credit score: reporting on-time payments to the major bureaus (about 35% of your score) and helping you manage utilization (30% of your score). Results vary based on your starting credit profile, but consistent on-time payments over several months almost always produce measurable improvement.

No. Signing up for iBoost doesn't require a credit check and won't affect your score. We verify identity only — a soft verification that doesn't generate a hard inquiry on your report.

We use bank-level encryption (TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest) on every connection and never sell your personal information. You control what's shared and can export or delete your data at any time. Full details in our Trust & compliance section.

Yes. There's no contract and no cancellation fee. You're billed month-to-month, and when you cancel, you simply stop being charged at the end of the current cycle.

Credit Karma is a credit monitoring service — it shows you your score but doesn't help you actively build credit. Kikoff reports a "tradeline" but charges extra for tools like dispute help, budget tracking, and debt negotiation. iBoost offers a free tier with the education library and budget app, a $15 tier (Essential) with real bureau reporting, and a $30 tier (Complete) that includes every feature we offer — dispute assistance, unlimited AI advice, and a $2,000 reported credit line for maximum score velocity.

Yes. iBoost is built for the Canadian market. We report your on-time payments to Equifax — the bureau most Canadians check — and bill in Canadian dollars: Essential is $20 CAD per month and Complete is $40 CAD per month. The Free tier is always free.

A credit bureau (also called a credit reporting agency, or CRA) is a company that collects information about your borrowing behavior from lenders and sells that information back to other lenders who are deciding whether to extend you credit. Bureaus don't lend money themselves — they're the record-keepers. The information they hold about you is called your credit report; the numeric summary calculated from that report is your credit score.

Canada has two main credit bureaus: Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada. Experian briefly operated in Canada but exited the market in 2009. Canadian lenders typically pull from one or both of the remaining bureaus. Both are regulated under PIPEDA federally and provincial consumer-reporting statutes (Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, BC each have their own).

The bureau maintains the raw data — the accounts you have, the payments you've made, the balances you carry, the inquiries made about you. The score is a three-digit number — on a 300–900 scale in Canada — produced by a scoring model applied to that data. Canada's two bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion, each keep their own file and calculate their own score, so the two can differ by 20–50 points for the same person, since not every lender reports to both. iBoost reports to and tracks your Equifax score.

In Canada your score comes from the bureaus' own models — Equifax uses its Equifax Risk Score (ERS 2.0) and TransUnion uses CreditVision — both on a 300–900 scale. (The FICO and VantageScore systems you may have read about are mostly used in the United States, on a 300–850 scale — which is why a 720 is solidly "very good" here but only entry-level there: the top of the Canadian scale is 50 points higher.) The models weigh similar inputs — payment history, balances and utilization, age of accounts, credit mix, and recent inquiries — so the levers that move your score are the same whichever bureau pulls your file. iBoost reports to and tracks your Equifax score.

On both Canadian bureau models the weighting is broadly: payment history about 35%, amounts owed — dominated by your credit utilization — about 30%, length of credit history about 15%, credit mix about 10%, and new credit and inquiries about 10%. Payment history and utilization together drive roughly two-thirds of your score, so paying on time and keeping revolving balances low (ideally under 30% of your limit) are the two biggest levers you control.

On Canada's 300–900 scale, Equifax generally breaks it down as: Poor under 560, Fair 560–659, Good 660–724, Very Good 725–759, and Excellent 760 and up. (TransUnion uses similar bands with slightly different cut-offs.) The average Canadian score sits around 672. "Good" (660+) qualifies you for most mainstream products at standard rates; lenders typically save their best pricing for 725 and up, while CMHC-insured mortgages generally start around 600.

Utilization = total balances on revolving accounts ÷ total credit limits on revolving accounts, expressed as a percentage. Example: you have two credit cards with $2,000 and $3,000 limits (total $5,000), and your combined balance is $1,000. Your utilization is 20%. Most scoring models calculate utilization on the balance reported to the bureau each month — which is often the balance at statement close, not the balance after you pay the bill. Paying before the statement date can lower the utilization the bureaus see.

No. Checking your own credit score is always a soft inquiry, regardless of how you access it (through the bureau directly, through your bank's app, through a service like iBoost, or through Credit Karma). Soft inquiries are invisible to lenders and have no effect on your score. Only hard inquiries — generated when a lender pulls your report in response to your application — can affect your score.

A soft pull happens when you (or anyone you've authorized, or certain pre-qualification checks) view your credit report without applying for credit. Soft pulls don't affect your score. A hard pull (also called a hard inquiry) happens when you apply for new credit and the lender pulls your report to make a decision. Each hard pull typically lowers your score by 3–5 points for up to 12 months and remains on your report for 2 years.

Usually hurts. Closing a card reduces your total available credit (raising your utilization on remaining cards) and, if it's one of your older accounts, eventually shortens your average account age once it ages off your report. Exceptions: closing a card with a high annual fee you're not getting value from, or closing a card that poses a fraud or overspending risk. The general rule is "keep old cards open and make one small purchase a year to keep them active."