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Free FICO Credit Score Estimates
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Your FICO score has become one of the most important indicators of your credit worthiness and so many people are very interested in their score. Credit bureaus know this and so they often sell services that let you see what score they’ve given you. Your credit score is important but for many it’s far more important to pue $30-50 a month away into an savings, so enter in FICO credit score estimators.
Below I’ll talk about two FICO score estimators that I feel are trusthworthy enough to work with. There are a lot of websites out there offering a free FICO credit score or a free FICO credit score estimate that are really just front pages for scams getting you to sign up for monitoring services or other pay services (or they’re out to steal your identity!). Don’t use those. I feel the two services below are the only ones you should trust.
Free Credit Report
If you just want a copy of your credit report, without score, then get it from the only place that offers it for free, as required by law, AnnualCreditReport.com. Don’t request it anywhere else because it’s probably some kind o f scam. You can get a copy of your report every 12 months and I recommend you do so in order to check for errors. Now, onto the scores.
Free FICO Credit Score
You can get a free credit score if you sign up for the myFICO ScoreWatch 30-day trial or one of the other options on my list of Free FICO credit scores and then cancel the trial. If you do not cancel within the 30 day trial, you will be billed for the service. You can cancel the service online.
MyFICO Score Estimator
MyFICO is a service run by Fair Isaac, the creators of the FICO score, and they offer a free score estimator absolutely free. The 10 question estimator takes about five minutes to complete and offers you a pretty wide range for your score.
The score they estimated for me was 725-775 and my actual credit score, which I checked a couple months ago (just before signing up for a Capital One card I deemed was the best international credit card), fell within that range. The range may seem large but that reflects how each bureau weighs factors slightly differently.
Why this tool? Since it’s fun by Fair Isaac, you can trust that your data will be safe and that the estimate will be accurate to the best of their ability. They created the paradigm and the range represents how the individual bureaus weight different factors. It passes the trust and accuracy tests.
If you want a real score, you can always sign up for MyFICO’s services, Cap at StopBuyingCrap keeps an updated MyFICO coupon page you can review for discounts.
CreditKarma
CreditKarma is an independent site will get and track your credit score if you offer up some information about yourself. After registering, you’re asked to provide your address, birthdate, and social security number; Credit Karma goes out and grabs your score from one of the three credit bureaus. For a while, Credit Karma was estimating your score, but it appears that they are now actually grabbing it. What concerns me abotu the site is that normally a company will ask you three questions from your credit history to confirm your identity – I was asked no such questions.
The score they gave me was 721, from TransUnion.
A cool feature about the site that people may find interesting is the “credit simulator.” You give it certain scenario changes and they simulate what your score is. As you set the simulations, a little Impact indicator estimates what the impact is. When you’re done, click simulate score and they recalculate the numbers for you. It was a fun little tool to play around with.
Why this tool? Credit Karma is fairly new but they’ve passed the test of public opinion, as evidenced by all the press they’ve received. You’ll also see that they’ve partnered with some of the bureaus (TransUnion sponsors the credit simulator) and so they’ve passed the sniff test with them. While you do provide more information, they don’t store your most sensitive data on the site and you get an actual score.
Between the two services, based on how comfortable you are with sending out your data, you should be able to get an accurate view of what your credit score is. If you opt for Credit Karma, you get the added benefit of playing with the simulator too!
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GET YOUR FREE CREDIT REPORTS – Take advantage of the opportunity to get a free credit report from each of the 3 companies – Experian, Transunion & Equifax once each year, using annualcreditreport.com.
The first year I got all 3 of my reports at the same time, to compare the information. The following year I got 1 report on the anniversary date (April), waited 4 months to get the 2nd report (August) and waited another 4 months to get the 3rd report (December).
Now I get one free report every 4 months – one from each company each year. This allows me to monitor my credit regularly for free.
CORRECT MISTAKES IN YOUR REPORTS – If you get the reports online, you have an opportunity to request correction for any mistakes you find through the website. After investigating & making any corrections they will give you the opportunity to see the corrected report for free.
ORDER CREDIT SCORES – If you want to monitor your credit scores as well, order 1 score each time you get a free credit report. When you access your free report you will have an opportunity to order a credit score from that company for $6-8. I order 1 credit score each time I get a free report – the cost is minimal and I track my credit scores from each company each year. It’s worth the cost to me to know where I stand!
Thanks for letting your readers about Credit Karma. Please let us know if you find the service useful.
Why is mine always at least 30 points lower then myfico? I have no mortgage or loans of any type open. I use only 1 credit card and pay off every month.
If your service is having such a hard time with a file of my size then I don’t see how it can be accurate for complex ones.
saladdin
I know a few people using Credit Karma so I’m considering checking it out, seems to be legit. I wonder if it’s your “true” score though, I thought the only way to get your actual score is to apply for a loan. The lender is then required to share the report and score with you. Anyone know if CK is your real FICO or just another guesstimate?
@miss m
That is a common misconception, that there is only one true credit score. There are hundreds of different scores. When it comes to FICO they have multiple scores and those scores are even different depending on the bureau you use.
Independent Source: http://www.experian.com/consumer/credit_score_faqs.html#1
The truth is that all credit score are similar and correlated. Monitoring one, a few, or all is a matter of detail and costs.
Credit Karma seems like a good resource, I’m glad there are people spreading the word about useful sites that are being tried out. Just to add to the mix, Thrive (a free online financial advisory) has added a new feature which gives users their credit score estimates for free as well. It’s important to know your credit score before embarking on improving it, and Thrive also gives advice about how to work on your credit score instead of just showing it to you to decode by yourself.
Just thought I’d pass on another resource since it was relevant to the discussion at hand.
I’ve met with the CEO of Credit Karma a couple of times and can only tell you that they have the consumer’s best interest. Even if you don’t sign up for their service, their blog (http://blog.creditkarma.com) is a great source for credit information.
Creditkarma has never been close. I just ran it again and it shows 668 but myfico is 710. It has always shown scores 30 poitns lower then myfico.
saladdin
Regarding Creditkarma, I’ve had the same problem. My score was MUCH lower there than I’ve ever gotten from one of the 3 credit reporting agencies when I’ve paid for a score.
You didn’t mention that MYFICO also has a 30day trial period and then they will charge you annually if you don’t cancel. Your article sounded like there was no “cancellation” required. Maybe you need to research futher.
I’m sorry it wasn’t clear, typically a trial means that you get to try something for free and then pay for it if you don’t cancel the service. I’m sorry it wasn’t clear but I’ve amended the article to make that clear. If you call and say you want to cancel, they will usually pro-rate the refund and issue it to you.
Just checked using both the estimator and Credit Karma. Both worked very quickly and the scores matched up well too. Thanks for this post, truly helpful stuff! Too many bloggers simply rehash oft repeated techniques of raising / managing your score, you were the first I found with helpful links and how to information. And now I know that I don’t need to stress about raising my score since its relatively high considering im only 20. Thanks for helping me put my mind at ease!
-Ab