Free Credit Scores – Where to Get Them
Posted by Kimberly Rotter on Sep 9, 2014 in Personal Finance | 0 commentsBelow are links to legitimate websites that offer free credit scores. You should know approximately what your credit score is, but you don’t need to pay to see it.
Many credit card issuers offer free FICO scores.
Discover offers free FICO scores here (from Experian), even if you are not a Discover cardholder.
Most free credit scores are updated monthly. WalletHub updates your free TransUnion credit report daily.
Most free scores are not FICO scores, and none of the free scores are likely to be the same as what a mortgage lender sees (mortgage lenders get a special report, and they pull your score from multiple sources), but they are all good indications of your overall credit health. The credit reporting agencies use literally dozens, maybe hundreds of different credit score calculations. Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, FICO and VantageScore all have their own formulas for computing your credit score, and different formulas depending on who’s asking for it.
The nice thing about the free versions is that they all come with tips for improving your score, and cautions about anything that appears to be dragging your score down.
Don’t expect all of your credit scores to be the same. They will almost always vary.
Here are three free credit scores for one consumer on a single day in September, 2014.
You’ll have to provide your social security number, birth date and the correct answers to several identity-verification questions in order to access a genuine free credit score.