Free Credit Scores?

[disneymotherof3]

Can anyone of you great Diser's tell me where I can get a free credit score? TIA!

 

[DisMN]

Hi Disneymotherof3! I use creditkarma.com. They are very accurate and you can check as often as you like without any dings to your credit. And the best part is it's totally free!
If you tour the site you'll see your credit score broken down into a grading system and lots of other helpful info.

Have fun!

 

[ShesAPirate]

I use annualcreditreport dot com. It is truly free, but you can only get a report once a year. It is a detailed report from all 3 reporting agencies, but they don't give a FICO score.

Have not used the site the PP recommended, but I am checking it out now.

Good luck!

 

[ctinct]

You can't get your true FICO scores for free. I do second the recommendation from pp for Credit Karma. However, they only use one credit bureau and it is their own permutation of your credit score. It will be close, but not your actual FICO score. There are many different variations of your credit score. Auto dealers can see one that is different than what you would see. There are proprietary (I'm sure I didn't spell that correctly) scores that you can get "free" from those credit monitoring type places. I'd stay away from those. They are not your true FICO scores, plus I've heard that people often find it difficult to cancel after their free trial period is over. If you want your FICO scores, and you can only get two of the three now, as one of the credit bureaus is no longer selling them to consumers, you need to go to myfico.com.

Whoa! I just went to myfico.com to be sure I had the right address, and even they are touting free scores-but when I investigated further, it was also with a ten day trial. I suppose if you want to try that way, you can, but I personally feel more comfortable paying upfront for my scores. I think it is $19.95. How sad is that? I just looked, but I forget how much it is. You just want the basic score--no add-ons. Do an internet search for a code, because you will probably be able to get a few bucks off.

Also, as someone suggested, you should get your credit reports, which don't include your scores, once a year, at annualcreditreport.com, NOT freecreditreport.com. The smart way to do it is to get one of the three every four months. Unfortunatly, I do not have that discipline--I just get them all at once. Hope this helped.

 

[gshumaker]

quizzle.com

 

[*Seanaci*]

freecreditreport.com

Although...my credit union updates my credit score quarterly. It has it's own tab within my account info online.

 

[ctinct]

freecreditreport.com

Although...my credit union updates my credit score quarterly. It has it's own tab within my account info online.

Freecreditreport.com is one of those for profit places that makes you enroll in credit monitoring. Yes, you CAN cancel, but they often don't make it easy. It's also probably not your true score. Really, if you want your FICO score, you generally have to pay for it. Your credit report, however, is free at annualcreditreport.com, a site the companies were forced to set up by the feds...rest assured, they didn't want to give them for free.

And, once again, oftentimes, although not always, scores received through secondary sources are specialized scores that are calculated on a different scale. I sometimes see people stating their credit score is close to 900. The general consensus is FICO only goes up to 850. That's what they say, but in reality, there is some debate about that because they keep some of their info private. 830 on a true FICO scale would be an awesome score.

BTW, even on the FICO site, the first option presented for a "free" score requires you to enroll in credit monitoring. It will only give you one of the two scores available to you. If you want your TransUnion score, there is an additional charge of $17.95. To just pay for your two scores outright, you need to click "fico scores and credit report" and then "check it." Each score (without a discount code) is $19.95. The monitoring seems cheaper, until you see that Score Watch requires a three month minimum and the other one only gives you your TransUnion score. And of course, they are hoping you will forget to cancel after 3 months. Remember, a lot of outside places that might seem cheaper will only give you what's called a FAKO score, not your true FICO score. Fakos can be useful to get a general idea of where you stand, but it is not your real score. For example, I use creditkarma.com about once a month to get my faco transunion score. However, I know it is not my real score, and in my case, I know it is lower than my other scores. Why? When I pulled my credit reports from annualcreditreport.com some years ago for the first time, I noticed my paid on time for years mortgage does not report to transunion. If I did not know this, I might think both my scores were in the same general area. They're not. (which is why, say, if you are applying for credit anywhere, it is good to investigate WHICH score they pull---some places do one, some more than one. If you are looking for a credit card, and one of your scores is marginal and one is better, the chances for acceptance go up if you apply to a card that you know will pull your better score.)

Whew! I got pretty long-winded here. Sorry.