There are various legitimate methods to check your credit score for free or a little charge to help you avoid becoming a victim of these phony credit score check websites. Knowing your credit score is important as lenders use it to decide your creditworthiness for credit cards, loans, mortgages, and other kinds of credit and financing. Depending on their credit score, borrowers might get the best interest rates that the credit issuers have to offer.
Review Your Credit Profile Although your credit reports will not show your credit score exactly, they will provide a complete picture of your credit history including all accounts and payment data. Based on the foregoing, you may estimate where your scores would fall and evaluate your general credit situation. Federal laws let you once a year ask the three main credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—for a free credit report. Either you could ask for all three reports at once or you could ask for each one at various times of the year to ensure you are looking over all of your credit records for any mistakes every quarter. The only website with free credit reports as required by federal law is Annualcreditreport. com. Though there may be other websites offering free credit reports, avoid falling for these frauds as you will probably be registering for $1 monthly credit monitoring services.
Bank Credit Score Services These days, credit scores and credit reports have become popular perks for banking consumers as they are given to the users as account privileges. With most banks, the score can only be accessed via your online banking account after logging in. It could be a FICO score or it could be a VantageScore, two credit risk scores that both use the information on your credit reports but use different formulas. The main thing to remember is that the score only provides an overall idea of your credit standing. Currently, most of the major credit card issuers including Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Discover offer some form of free credit scores for their customers. Special features and provisions may differ with your financial institution, so it is best to read through your bank’s website for information, or you may contact their customer service hotline.
Credit Card Credit Scores Thanks to credit card companies, credit scores are a cardholder perk; for instance, it is common to find credit card statements featuring free credit scores every month or through online account access. For instance, Discover has been providing FICO credit scores on statements to help customers understand how various activities affect their credit scores. Other credit card companies also have such facilities like Capital One and Citi which provide free credit scores to the users in the interest of encouraging proper usage and credit score management. These scores depend on the issuer whereby they may be updated monthly or quarterly and may be from TransUnion, Equifax, Experian, or FICO. If you are a cardholder, then you can look at your monthly statements, or go online to the credit card company website.
Subscription Credit Monitoring Services You can obtain your credit reports and credit scores from credit monitoring or identity theft protection services, however, it will require you to sign up to receive them. Some services, such as IdentityForce, LifeLock, Credit Karma, etc., offer credit scores and the ability to track your credit reports from one or more bureaus as an add-on feature. Some also provide services such as identity theft insurance options to cover the costs of this crime, identity theft tracking services in case you or your family members become identity theft victims, and resolution services in case you fall prey to identity theft. Subscription costs range from five dollars to thirty dollars depending on the plan chosen by the individual. Most offer free trials where you can request your credit information without paying any money at the beginning and avoid being charged if you do not want to continue past the trial.
Standalone Credit Score Services Some of them include Identity IQ, PrivacyGuard, Credit Sesame, CreditCheck Total and many more provide the credit score as well as one full credit report from one or more credit bureaus. The fee ranges from five dollars to twenty dollars per month depending on which company the client is willing to subscribe to and which level of service they want to sign up for. The companies boast of other privacy protection services sometimes in the cases. If your primary objective is to minimize the frequency of usage of credit reports and frequently assess your credit score, this can be the most efficient as these services are primarily oriented to credit monitoring rather than identity theft. Some of the services in this category also come with free trial subscriptions so that you can get your credit info before subscribing.
Try Reseller Websites There are also shady websites that just provide a credit score by signing up for dozens of free trial credit monitoring services. The advantage is you can sign up with your credit card number or other info through the link provided and you can usually see your credit score and credit report one time for free before they try to sell a recurring monthly subscription to monitor your credit score or report. CreditScore360 or LendingTree are examples of websites that give you access to your credit score as you compare for loans and credit cards. Its operation model focuses on customers who seek loans and parties willing to provide them. Yes, you fill in some questions to receive a free credit check through their lending partners.
In conclusion, it is possible to verify your credit score online for free or for a small fee once as established above. Watch out for the websites promising to provide information for free but in reality, you have to enter a lot of sensitive information about yourself or subscribe for a free trial that comes with a monthly fee unless you are interested in full credit monitoring. It is recommended to check your score from time to time but caution should be taken not to expose much of your private information while doing so.
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