It is possible to see your Equifax credit score for free, although it will not be every month as the comparable service offered by Equifax, the monthly credit report and score, costs $19. 95 every month.
Among the most vital financial-related pieces of information about you is your credit score. It tells the lenders the likelihood of your defaulting on your debts. FICO and Vantage Score are among the most often utilized credit scores available even though there are other credit scoring agencies. One of the three credit reporting companies that compile information on your credit profile and send it to these credit scoring systems for use in generating your scores is Equifax. You most likely have an Equifax credit score as you have an Equifax credit report. Still, are additional Equifax goods and credit scores available for free? You need to know this.
First of all, one has to ascertain the Equifax Credit Score.
Equifax credit score is a figure computed by Equifax that shows credit status and captures user defaulting possibility. Equifax generates your score by pulling information from your Equifax credit report and using a scoring methodology. Although your Equifax credit score offers important information about your creditworthiness, other lenders may also take into account your TransUnion or Experian scores, along with other data, when determining whether or not to provide credit and at what interest rates to do so.
Usually ranging between 300 and 850, Equifax credit score ranges are also somewhat similar to other types of credit score. Equifax credit score also shows to the lenders that you are less likely to fail in the payments, therefore, being in a position to access the best interest rates and better conditions. A low Equifax credit score indicates the customer is more likely to be regarded as high-risk and reject credit completely when seeking new credit.
Why Your Equifax Credit Score Matters
To clarify, there is not one Equifax credit score that you possess, as the suggestion above suggests. There are several models of credit scoring as every model works out credit scores in a unique way concerning the information in your credit report. You always have one or more Equifax credit scores in existence at any one point in time. Nonetheless, FICO scores are still more preferred by most lenders than the other three.
But while lenders may focus on your FICO Scores when considering your credit worth, analyzing your Equifax credit scores does not necessarily render the service useless.
Here’s why monitoring your Equifax credit score matters:
It helps you to understand that score which may be seen by lenders. While some lenders use FICO Scores to make lending decisions more often, it’s still useful to know your Equifax Credit Score to make sure that they tend to be the same. Large variations may reveal mistakes or fraud that must be corrected before the next financial period.
As for me, the most helpful would be to pay attention to the possible alterations in the situation. That way, since you are using Equifax to view your credit scores and reports, you may be able to see changes in your scores earlier than if you were just using third-party sites to check your credit. Fluctuations can help you learn about changed credit reports or additional information that the lenders submitted.
It enables you to look for the scores from all the three bureaus. This is made possible through the use of Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion score reports, which provide a detailed view of the customer’s credit status based on information collected by the three credit bureaus. This way you can be certain that all the important account information that is supposed to be reported to each of them is factually correct.
You have the rights that allow you to run credit reports and get your credit scores. It means that according to federal law, you have the right to receive your information from Equifax to track your financial status.
How to Get My Equifax Credit Report and Credit Score for Free?
Thankfully, you can now get your Equifax credit score for free without paying for a credit monitoring subscription.
The following links will let you see your most recent Equifax scores:
Should you have credit reports and scores, they come from Equifax.
Every year Equifax provides a free trial of your most current credit report and credit score.
For your free Equifax report and score:
Click “Request your Equifax report” on www.annualcreditreport.com.
Among the specifics you will be expected to submit are name, date of birth, and social security number, but they are not limited there. This lets Equifax access your credit records and confirm your data.
Depending on the kind of report you create, after your report is ready you may be able to get a free Equifax credit score. This phase will not reveal your three-digit score combined with the report, so make sure to go back to check your final score.
Through Equifax CreditWise
CreditWise is Equifax’s free service that helps to monitor credits and identity. If you apply for CreditWise with a valid email address you come with the added feature of receiving your latest Equifax credit score updated every month. Also, you will be notified of any of the huge swings or compromises identified in the Equifax credit report.
The CreditWise mobile app also comes with some helpful tutorial tools that will assist you in improving your credit. You can look for deals that are targeted at users with your credit history, compare changes to your credit as well as get tips on how to use your credit correctly.
Pre-Approved Credit Card Offers
Almost all of the credit card companies permit you to check if you are pre-approved for one of their credit cards and this is a form of soft credit check. Soft checks do not need a hard inquiry, thus they will not affect your credit rating. Pre-qualification tools will provide any Equifax score for free and also tell you what offers you qualify for. For instance, in Discover, the user can click the button to get to know whether he/she qualifies to be given pre-approved card offers and have the Equifax credit report FICO score pulled. Remember that you can see your score, however, you do not have to show up to work on the applications if the opportunities are not suitable.
Third-Party Credit Score Services
Some other credit score services such as Credit Karma and NerdWallet offer free credit scores with Vantage Score that originated from Equifax data and not the genuine FICO score. Albeit it may not be a direct match with your scores, getting updates from these sites can help you determine your credit trend on VantageScore. Just know that it probably won’t exactly correlate to your actual Equifax FICO score, however, it is a good place to start.
Here I would like to ask the question: Should I pay for Equifax credit monitoring?
All of the options above enable you to check your Equifax credit score for free, without signing up for any credit monitoring fees. But if you do wish to keep an even closer eye on your credit, you might want to purchase a paid subscription service like FreeEquifax that provides more constant access to your full Equifax credit report and other features for monitoring your credit. This means that the paid Equifax plans cost anywhere between $20 and $40 in a given month.
Take for instance, Equifax Complete Premier is a product that allows you to monitor your Equifax credit score and credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and Transunion daily, offers identity theft insurance, and sends real-time alerts when fraud is detected.
Even if you are a typical consumer dealing with credit issues or fraud, a paid Equifax plan can be reassuring. Yet, it probably comes with more bells and whistles than the typical consumer requires to track credit health. To review your credit score and profile most people feel that using the free service to periodically monitor the Equifax credit score is sufficient.
The Bottom Line
There are many ways to check Equifax's credit score, and it is free, through service providers such as Equifax Credit Report and Score, CreditWise, pre-approval credit card offers, and third-party score websites. Although paid credit monitoring services offer even deeper functionality, the basic tools are sufficient to grant you the means to check your Equifax credit score as often as required to identify any significant shifts.
Monitoring your Equifax credit score in addition to the Equifax report and score and Experian and TransUnion enables you to monitor your credit status well. Supervising all three major bureaus helps because you do not miss some discrepancy, mistake, or suspicious activity. As mentioned earlier, the only way to monitor your important Equifax credit data effectively is through the right tools and it is all free.
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