| It is important to check your credit
score when before a lender does. This way, you can see what lenders
see to know where you stand with creditors. If your score is low
risk, you're likely to get a better interest rate. If your credit
score is high risk, you should definitely check
your credit report too to make sure you don't have any inaccuracies
that is affecting your FICO score.
Now checking your credit score isn't expensive. In fact, there
are ways to get a free credit score (free FICO score is often used
interchangably with free credit score).
How to get a free credit score
There are a few tricks on getting your free credit score. We've
listed them here for you to decide which way is best for you:
- When you purchase credit monitoring programs, they often offer
an unlimited supply of free
credit reports and free FICO scores during your trial period.
These services are great for people who are very conscientous
about their credit and want to make sure to avoid identity theft.
Of course, you can always cancel after the trial period without
a penalty if you don't like the service to truly get a "free
credit score" AND report as well.
Equifax's Credit Monitoring Product - Credit
Watch
Experian's Credit Monitoring Product - Triple
Advantage
TransUnion's Credit Monitoring Product - Free
Credit Profile
- Most credit bureaus offer you a combined credit report and free
credit score for just $14.95. Visit myFico.com
to get your free FICO score now.
- Some credit bureaus offer a combined 3-bureau credit report
and a free credit score for around $30. Here are a few people
who offer this 3-bureau report. Luckily, myFico
also offers this product as well.
Purchasing a credit score
If getting a free credit score is too much of a hassle for you,
consider just purchasing it. It is recommended that you check all
three credit scores at the same time, since Experian, Equifax and
TransUnion use different formulas to calculate your credit scores,
which means the score may likely be different for each of the credit
bureaus. Fair Isaac and Company, the official company who started
the FICO score, allows you to check all three credit scores at one
time. If you would like to purchase your credit score site, please
visit their site at http://www.myfico.com
- Equifax Credit Score - visit the
official Equifax website.
- Experian Credit Score - visit Experian's consumer website, CreditExpert.
- TransUnion Credit Score - visit TransUnion's consumer website,
TrueCredit.
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