Your credit score is important – it’s the first thing a lender is going to look at when you apply for a loan and it directly affects the interest rate you pay. Your FICO credit score is based on your credit history, which can be found in your credit report. You can get a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com, but most companies charge you for your credit score.*
Unfortunately, your credit score isn’t something you can just look up any time you want – you often have to pay for it, usually anywhere from $5-$15, depending on where you get it. However, you can get a free copy of your FICO credit score if you are willing to do a little legwork.
*Note: Your credit score and credit report are different. Your credit report covers credit history and your FICO credit score is a number based on a weighted and proprietary formula.
How to get your free FICO Credit Score
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) requires each of the 3 major credit bureaus to provide you with a free credit report once per year upon request. The credit bureaus are not required to provide your credit score, but they are happy to offer you an upsell.
The good news is that many companies are willing to give you a copy of your credit report and credit score free if you sign up for a free trial of their monthly credit monitoring service. The credit monitoring service gives you the ability to check your credit report, credit score, verify your credit history is correct, and verify that there are no unauthorized items on your report. You should receive your credit report and credit score when you sign up and you can always cancel the credit monitoring service before the free trial period ends if you don’t wish to continue paying for it. Your credit score will be free as long as you remember to cancel in time.
Where to get your free FICO credit score
The FICO credit score is the most commonly used credit score in the US. The following companies either offer a free FICO credit score, or a proprietary credit score that should approximate the FICO credit score.
MyFICO ScoreWatch. MyFico is owned by Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), creators of the FICO credit score, pretty much the gold standard of credit scores. Signing up for the 30 day free trial of MyFICO ScoreWatch gives you a copy of your credit report and credit score from Equifax. You will only be charged if you elect not to cancel your service within the 30 free trial period.
Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring. Equifax is one of the three major credit bureaus and provides credit reports and scores. Signing up for a free credit report from Equifax gives you a 30 day trial of their service, which includes your free FICO credit score and a 3-in-1 consolidated credit report from the three credit bureaus. The monthly fee is $14.95 if you do not cancel within 30 days.
TrueCredit. TrueCredit is owned byTransUnion, another of the 3 major credit bureaus. The TrueCredit credit monitoring service gives you immediate access to all three credit reports AND scores, and you can set up alerts to notify you when your credit report or score changes. TrueCredit also offers $25,000 of identity theft insurance with their service. The monthly fee of $14.95 will not be charged if you cancel within the 30 day free trial period.CreditReport.com. CreditReport.com offers your credit score along with 3-in-1 merged credit reports from the three national credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. The monthly fee is $14.95 and comes with a 7 day free trial.
FreeCreditReport.com. FreeCreditReport.com is famous for their catchy commercials. But if you read the fine print, the only way to get a free credit score from their site is to sign up for the 7 day free trial membership in Triple Advantage, then cancel before the end of the free trial period (you actually have 9 days to cancel without being charged). FreeCreditreport.com’s Triple Advantage service provides you with a Monthly Statement with your Credit Score, Alerts digest, and a summary of the key financial information that lenders use to rate you. The cost is $14.95 per month if you maintain the service.- CreditReportsandScores.com. CreditReportsandScores.com offers Triple bureau credit monitoring, credit monitoring updates, and a 7-day trial period in which you can cancel at no charge, otherwise $14.95 per month.
Why should you get your free credit report and score?
Knowing your credit score comes in handy if you plan on applying for a loan or if you have a need for credit in the near future. For most people, it is a good idea to have an idea of your score, but it may not be necessary to know the exact number. However, reviewing your credit report frequently (at least every few months) is a good idea.
Credit monitoring services get a bad rap because many of them have the reputation for tricking people into signing up for a service which is difficult to cancel. The good news is that the FTC cracked down on these practices requires them to notify you that you can receive free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com.
The truth is that credit monitoring services aren’t necessary for everyone, but they offer a great service for people who have been exposed to identity theft or a breach in their personal information. Credit monitoring services allow them to receive notification if their credit report or credit score changes.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
First a quick typo… you meant to say “7 *day* free trial membership” under the freecreditreport description.
Second, while Ryan has made it quite clear, I want to repeat… careful careful careful! While taking advantage of free trial offers is okay if you’re the organized and proactive type, if you’re not, you can cost yourself much more.
You also should consider how much you’re saving versus how much time it’ll cost you to cancel. Chances are you’ll be on hold for a bit, followed by having to say ‘no, just cancel me’ to several different offers from the phone rep whose job is to try to stop you from canceling. Is it worth the hassle to save $20? Maybe, *if* you match the qualities above, but maybe not.
Even though I *am* the organized type (at least when it comes to this type of thing – I’ve taken good advantage of several similar free trial period offers and never been charged a penny), for this, I just don’t think it’s worth the hassle. I’d rather pay ~$20 to the bureaus to get my scores when I pull my free annual reports. Heck, you can even just pay for one score, and as long as the content of your free reports is similar on each site, you can be pretty darn confident that your score would likewise be very similar.
Good catch on the typo, fredct.
You bring up good points. But there are many people who prefer not to pay anything, so it’s important to get the information out there so people understand how the free credit scores really work.
If you are concerned about your FICO, myFico is worth every penny (google for a savings code). They have a great feature that simulates your score based on criteria you determine. Pay off a debt… your score is…, take out a loan, your score is…. etc…
Totally enlightning!
a “credit score” that you get with most of these products is NOT the same as your real FICO score, the only score your creditors are really interested in … save yourself and purchase your FICO score when you really need it .. well in advance of big purchases, etc so you can check for errors and get them corrected before applying for credit
Very true – most lenders want to know your FICO credit score. I noted in the article that some of them will give you a copy of your official your FICO credit score, while some of the others will give you a credit score based on a slightly different formula, but it should approximate the FICO score. All of them should give you a copy of your official credit report, which is good to check frequently if you believe you have been exposed to identity theft or a security breach.
Don’t forget creditkarma.com. Not exactly the FICO score, but close, and free without worrying about trial periods and the like.