How do I get my free annual credit score

[stemikger]

In the past I was able to get an annual credit report from the government website, but does anyone know if they provide a service where I can get my free credit score. I have no need for the report.

Everytime I google it, all I get is site where they say it is free, but they make you joing a service of some kind.

Thanks for any info you may know about.

[sscritic]

I believe that's what you get, free reports, but no free scores.

AnnualCreditReport.com is the ONLY authorized source for the free annual credit report that's yours by law. The Fair Credit Reporting Act guarantees you access to your credit report for free from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — every 12 months. The Federal Trade Commission has received complaints from consumers who thought they were ordering their free annual credit report, and yet couldn't get it without paying fees or buying other services. TV ads, email offers, or online search results may tout "free" credit reports, but there is only one authorized source for a truly free credit report.

[stemikger]

I believe that's what you get, free reports, but no free scores.

AnnualCreditReport.com is the ONLY authorized source for the free annual credit report that's yours by law. The Fair Credit Reporting Act guarantees you access to your credit report for free from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — every 12 months. The Federal Trade Commission has received complaints from consumers who thought they were ordering their free annual credit report, and yet couldn't get it without paying fees or buying other services. TV ads, email offers, or online search results may tout "free" credit reports, but there is only one authorized source for a truly free credit report.

Thanks. I don't mind paying for my score, but all these sites want you to join their service for a monthly fee. Yes, they do give you the option to cancel within seven days, but I have gotten burnt before where they kept charging my credit cards and it took a lot of work on my part to stop them from charging a mothly fee even though I canceled. I wish there was a site where they charged you X amount for the score with no strings attached.

[sscritic]

Article on Yahoo Finance:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/truth-7-c ... 00855.html

However, if you want a copy of your FICO credit score (which is the most widely used score by lenders), you'll usually have to pay up to $19.95 (at myFICO.com ) to get it.

At myFICO.com, don't click on the monthly subscription, but click on the one-time $19.95 button.
http://www.myfico.com/Products/FICOOne/Description.aspx

[Carl53]

My credit union will run one for me for free (Experian) if I ask them. I've not been overly a pain about it, but have done so 3-4 times in the past 10 years.

[mike143]

For free score use creditkarma.com.

[rocket]

Annualcreditreport.com will give you a report from each credit report

[KyleAAA]

myfico.com or apply for a loan. Credit Karma will also give you a free estimate (I'm not sure if it's a real score or not?).

[ilmartello]

myfico.com or apply for a loan. Credit Karma will also give you a free estimate (I'm not sure if it's a real score or not?).

creditkarma will give you a free score, but is it a score based on a methodology produced by transunion. All those credit scores that experian,transunion, and equifax offer are scores based on their proprietary methods.

The dominant score used to determine your creditworthiness by lenders is the Fico score. FICO is based on the name of the company Fair Isaac Corporation. The only place you can get that is from myfico.com They offer a free trial.
I get my free credit score through creditkarma updated daily if I want it, but that is a transrisk score based on transunion's propreitary scoring system. However, when I pulled my fico score i noted it was within a few points of my transrisk score.

[cjackson0]

My US Bank credit card gives me a free credit score from Experian whenever I want.

[e5116]

I have used annualcreditreport.com and then when checking out for the Equifax report, there's an option to also get your credit score for something like $8.95. That was the cheapest I found without having to sign up for some recurring service.

[RJB]

Fellow Boglehead Allan Roth recently wrote an article entitled, "A better free credit score service"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162- ... e-service/

[ilmartello]

Fellow Boglehead Allan Roth recently wrote an article entitled, "A better free credit score service"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162- ... e-service/

A wag of my finger at Allan Roth. All credit scores are not created equal. The credit score lenders use is fico, creditkarma is giving a you a transunion-derived credit score. In my case, that was close to my fico score, just off by a few points, but I don't know if that is always the case. A good article on credit scores should have introduced these caveats.

[Nutaboutgolf]

Credit Karma (TU) and quizzle (EX)...

[stemikger]

Thanks for the info.

[grabiner]

I get my free credit score through creditkarma updated daily if I want it, but that is a transrisk score based on transunion's propreitary scoring system. However, when I pulled my fico score i noted it was within a few points of my transrisk score.

It's unusual for your TransRisk score to be within a few points of your FICO; the scores have about the same range but the score distributions indicate that TransRisk scores are much lower. It's much more likely for the scores to be in the same percentile, which Credit Karma will give you.

Credit Karma also gives you a VantageScore, which is based on a newer model (and which is used by some lenders); this is on a 500-990 range and thus will almost always be higher than your FICO. Credit Karma does not give a percentile rank for the VantageScore, but it appears to be almost uniform; 800 is the top 40% and 900 is the top 20%.

[Kuckie]

My American Express Card, obtained through Costco, offers a free annual credit score and report from Experian. I am not sure if other Amex Cards also offer this. Here is a link to try: https://partner.experiandirect.com/CreditSecureF2F/login.aspx

[scot184]

VantageScore actually ranges from 501-990:

http://www.thetruthaboutcreditcards.com ... ore-range/

Why they didn't make it an even 500 I guess we'll never know. But perhaps to make their range unique? For the record, Fico tried to patent their scoring range of 300-850, but failed.

Credit Karma provides users with a TransRisk New Account Score, a VantageScore, and an Auto Insurance Score from TransUnion.

A "good" VantageScore starts in the 800+ range, and even then, that's a low "B" letter grade, so really a 900 score, or "A" score and higher signifies excellent credit.

[grabiner]

A "good" VantageScore starts in the 800+ range, and even then, that's a low "B" letter grade, so really a 900 score, or "A" score and higher signifies excellent credit.

The letter cutoff is somewhat arbitrary (900 was chosen because it is a round number); what really matters is where you stand relative to others. There's a chart here:

http://www.vantagescore.com/docs/vs_fac ... 014_vs.pdf

With VantageScore 2.0, 20% of scores are over 870, so an 875 VantageScore is about equivalent to an 800 FICO. Only 11% are over 900.

Also, this chart shows that there is very little variability in default rate for VantageScores above 870; it is 0.24% for 871-890, no lower than 0.10% for any other range, and is actually higher for 971-990 then for 951-970.

Thus, if you have an 895 VantageScore and charge $1000 on your cards but pay them off every month, I wouldn't worry about reducing the use of the credit cards to $500 to get it up to 900 for next month, even if you are going to be applying for a loan. (But judging from my own experience on Credit Karma, that is what would happen if you reduced your balances even if the $1000 was out of a total credit limit of $25,000; my score changes a few points every month as I have higher or lower balances and have them on two or three cards.)

[Gemini]

The free credit report annualy is from Jan till December? Or does it start from the time you last checked your score with one of the bureaus?

I checked my equifax in Sept 2012 and am wondering how long till my 12 months run out.

[donall]

The free credit report annualy is from Jan till December? Or does it start from the time you last checked your score with one of the bureaus?

I checked my equifax in Sept 2012 and am wondering how long till my 12 months run out.

Can't you check your credit score with one of the other two credit bureaus? My understanding is that each credit bureau allows one report annually.

[grabiner]

The free credit report annualy is from Jan till December? Or does it start from the time you last checked your score with one of the bureaus?

I checked my equifax in Sept 2012 and am wondering how long till my 12 months run out.

The law only requires exactly 12 months per bureau, so rotating among the three bureaus every four months is a good idea.

I check on April 15, August 15, and December 15 with the three different bureaus. One year, I tried to do my August 15 check after midnight EDT when it was still August 14 at the bureau, and the bureau wouldn't let me; I had to come back the next evening.

[Default User BR]

The free credit report annualy is from Jan till December?

Did you check the FAQs at the site?


Brian

[JamesSFO]

My American Express Card, obtained through Costco, offers a free annual credit score and report from Experian. I am not sure if other Amex Cards also offer this. Here is a link to try: https://partner.experiandirect.com/CreditSecureF2F/login.aspx

Do you have the page at Amex that leads there since I do not see on the Amex site where this is a listed benefit and the page is already at a login for Experian...?

[Sunny Sarkar]

How to get free credit scores:

* Digital Credit Union provides free FICO scores every month to members (req: direct deposit to checking).

* Walmart Discover card provides free FICO scores from TransUnion every month to cardholders.

* CreditKarma.com provides free FICO score estimates (not the real score) any time you ask for it.

[grabiner]

* CreditKarma.com provides free FICO score estimates (not the real score) any time you ask for it.

The score from Credit Karma is not an estimate of a FICO score; the TransRisk score is on the same 300-850 range as FICO but is significantly lower. (Credit Karma will tell you the percentile ranking of your TransRisk score, so that you can tell whether it is good despite the numerical value.)

[LadyGeek]

This thread is now in the Personal Finance (Not Investing) forum (credit).

[The Wizard]

The free credit report annualy is from Jan till December? Or does it start from the time you last checked your score with one of the bureaus?

I checked my equifax in Sept 2012 and am wondering how long till my 12 months run out.

Can't you check your credit score with one of the other two credit bureaus? My understanding is that each credit bureau allows one report annually.

The confusion seems to be continuing.
The OP asks about his credit SCORE, typically a FICO score.
Free credit reports are fine & dandy but do not include a SCORE.
Please try to pay attention on this point...

[LadyGeek]

To be clear, here's the wiki article: Credit score

The credit report is mentioned, but it's not a major focus for this article. Here's more detail: Credit Cards (under Credit report)