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How To Get A Free FICO Credit Score
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Your FICO credit score is increasingly becoming one of the most important numbers in your life. I’ve written about what’s in your FICO credit score as well as how to get FICO credit score estimates, but never how to get the actual three-digit FICO score calculated by one of the bureaus.
While the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) did wonders to shed light on the credit reporting industry and the data they are collecting on all of us, the light wasn’t bright enough. There is no way for you to get a free FICO credit score unless you sign up for a trial with one of the bureaus or with Fair Isaac Corporation directly.
Free FICO Credit Scores
There’s no true way to get a free FICO credit score, the bureaus aren’t in the business of giving that information away, but they will give you your score if you sign up for one of their credit related services. Fortunately, they offer trials so you can sign up for a program, see your score, then cancel the trial. If you just want your credit report, see the instructions below.
FreeCreditReport.com
FreeCreditReport.com – They offer a 7 day trial of their service and you can get a credit report from Experian as well as an Experian credit score. You are signing up to their Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring program which monitors for changes in your Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion credit report. If you don’t cancel within the 7 day trial, you will be charged $14.95 a month. FreeCreditReport.com is owned by Experian.
MyFICO ScoreWatch – MyFICO ScoreWatch has a thirty day (30) trial period where you can get a free Equifax credit report and Equifax credit score. If you don’t cancel within the first thirty days, you will be billed $89.95 annually and you get access to a credit monitoring program that’s fairly robust. You can read my MyFICO ScoreWatch review if you’re interested in learning more. MyFICO is owned by Fair Isaac Corporation, the creator of the FICO credit score system.
Privacy Matters 1-2-3 – Similar to Credit Check Total, this program has a 7 day trial membership and you get access to all three bureaus reports and scores. If you don’t cancel within the 7 day trial period, the service is $19.95 a month. Privacy Matters 1-2-3 is owned by Adaptive Marketing.
Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring – The list wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t include a service offered by Equifax. You sign up for a thirty day (30) trial and you get a free FICO credit score from Equifax as well as a 3-in-1 consolidated credit report from all three bureaus. If you don’t cancel within the 30 day period, the monthly fee is $14.95.
Free Credit Report
If you just want your credit report, you can get a copy from each of the bureaus from AnnualCreditReport.com, the website setup by the government. FACTA, passed signed into law in 2003, required that bureaus provide you a copy of your credit report each year upon request. FACTA wasn’t perfect but it did make improvements on FCRA.
It’s more important for you to check your credit report regularly than it is to check your score. Your score will be determined based on each bureau’s proprietary equation but the data they use, your report, is the critical piece of the puzzle. Reviewing your report regularly is the best way to ensure that whatever score you have is accurate. Millions of reports have errors and chances are good that you have one if you haven’t checked your report lately.
Reviewing your report is also important because you can spot identity theft fairly easily because you’ll see accounts or addresses that you don’t recognize. I reviewed my report a few years ago and discovered an address I didn’t recognize (along with a phone account). It took a few weeks but I had the matter cleared up. It didn’t affect my score but it’s important to keep your report as accurate as possible.
You will not be able to get your actual FICO credit score through the government website, you will need to use one of the options above.
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Nice consolidated list.
Last year my wife and I did the unthinkable… we forgot to cancel one of these! Whatever system you have to use, just make sure you don’t forget to cancel!
You can also get an approximation of your credit score for free at creditkarma.com. I get my credit report regularly, and then check Credit Karma to get an idea of where my credit score is at.
Yeah, it’s a slick service. I have Credit Karma listed on my page of credit score estimators.
Actually, I believe that CreditKarma is giving the TransUnion FICO score for free now, instead of an approximation, which they used to do.
Hey,
I found out my credit score through my local credit union. I applied for a car loan through them, and they actually gave me the promotional rate. So I asked them if they could tell me what my credit score was and they did. 788.
I just graduated from college, and have student loans, so I’m thinking I wouldn’t have the best credit history. But now I know and got to say, thanks for adding me to the credit card account in 2001 Dad.
You know, if they’d charge something reasonable like $2.99/mo I would probably carry a subscription forever. It’s not that the services aren’t valuable, it’s that their value is so out of line with their retail price.
I used Privacy Matters 1-2-3 last year to get my credit score for free and cancelled within the 7-day grace period. However they continued to charge my bank account $1 a month.I had to eventually file a cliam with my bank to get my $6 back! I have tried MyFico and had no problems!
Do any of these sites apply to Canadian readers or is it US based?
That’s a good question, do Canadian companies use FICO scores or do they rely on something else?
Interesting that your stock photo is of an AmEx card, because they recently offered me a free report and FICO score via Experian. No strings attached, no subscription to cancel. Nice.
The credit union is another good one as Steven mentioned. Chatting with my banker (unioner??) the other day, she happened to mention that they do soft pulls of my score regularly anyway because of my line of credit, and do I want to see what my score is currently and what the historical numbers had been? Uhhh, heck yeah! With maybe two keystrokes she had it all up on screen. (I pull my reports annually like clockwork to catch problems, and and have seen these pulls on there, so doesn’t look like it’s affecting the reports or score negatively.)
I jumped on that offer through Amex too Carina! Nice to see a no strings attached offer. Oh and a great credit score too.
Soft pulls/inquiries won’t affect your score at all, it’s the hard pulls/inquiries you have to watch out for. Fortunately, those only happen when companies are making a lending decision.
I wish they offered that to me!
Thanks for the list, Jim.
Looks like the creditkarma.com is a good option, isn’t it?
Anyway, off topic for a while, Jim, are you a Chinese?
Everyone thanks a bunch for sharing the info re: CreditKarma.com. I looked for days on ways to get around paying the high fees to the 3 credit reporting bureaus just to get my credit score. Unless I signed up for a free trial program I was looking at paying anywhere from $20 to $45 dollars and it would be just my luck I would forget to CXL. CreditKarma.com was fast and gave me instant results. Here again, thanks a bunch for sharing this info.
I found this site because I was looking for a little better info on my credit score. I use a site called creditkeeper it costs $10.00 a month and monitors all 3 bureaus. I am new to the credit world at 32 since I always used cash growing up in the restaurant biz. I have to say monitoring my credit can make me crazy I had a mis-charge on a card and it put me over my limit by $7, it also dropped my credit score by almost 40 points…I am grateful I got the alert so I could fix the problem but still lost the 40 points. I am trying desperately to build my credit but from what I understand from others it will take a lot of work to build it and only 1 bad thing to ruin it…I think credit is a racket and we are the ball, bouncing back and forth trying to make ends meat.
I don’t care what my credit/FICO score is I pay cash for everything. The credit card companies suck.
I feel like I am credit crazy at the moment. My husband and I are trying to purchase our first home. My Fico score is now my drug. I am looking for new ways to get it. Get it updated and make it better. I keep going over the formulas in my head?? I think the whole credit industry is meant to drive you nuts. As crazy as they are, I know that I have to meet the magic number to get reasonable financing. Is anyone else this crazy over the whole credit scene?