Credit score?

[pikaroth]

Quick question that the answer is perhaps right in front of me. How do you go about actually getting your credit score? For the first time ever, I did pull up my credit report from the three main agencies, but they do not actually show this legendary credit score that is always spoken about. As a matter of fact, all three said you have to pay for it. Is that the only way to get it?

Having completed my BK a little while ago now, I really wanted to see where things stood. I know next to nothing about rebuilding credit, and to be blunt, I have zero desire to get any credit card again, but I know that, in the end, I should do so. It's just felt amazing to not only have no debt but to be able to actually spend my own money on everything for the past couple of years now. But yes, time for research as I have not a single clue how to even go about, or if I should, getting my first card in a long while.

First though, this credit score thing. Am I missing how to just get it for free or do I, in the end, have to pay for it?

Thanks for any input!

[Amy26]

Well there are a couple routes you can go... you can purchase your Equifax FICO score from myfico.com (they sell a Transunion one too but don't waste your money its an outdated scoring model). You can subscribe to some credit monitoring services and get a "FAKO" score which is what most of the scores you will see are. These are just randomly generated calculations that aren't really based on what lenders use. You can subscribe to some Credit Unions that provide people with free FICO scores. IE: Digital Credit Union provides a monthly Equifax FICO score to members. Or, if you obtain a Walmart credit card, it provides a free Transunion FICO.

So, there are a few different ways to obtain them... some are "quazzi" free being that you have to become a member or get a credit card first and then the rest are paid for.

[SadPanda]

Some places have free trials, so if you wanted, you could see your credit scores for free and then cancel the service. Equifax has a 30-day free trial, and it looks like they'll let you see your scores from all three credit bureaus - I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know how hard they make it to cancel (hopefully, they just let you hit a "cancel" button, but sometimes you have to call to cancel free trials). It says that if you don't cancel before the end of the 30-day trial, "your enrollment will automatically continue at the regular rate of $16.95 per month."

[LadyInTheRed]

If you subscribe to a free service and then cancel, make sure you keep a record of the cancellation. If you cancel by email or on a website, keep the email or screen shot of the confirmation. If you have to call to cancel, right down the date you called and the person you talked to and ask for a transaction number. Then watch your statements to make sure they don't charge you for the subscription. I canceled one and still got charged for the subscription. It was easy to take care of because I had all the details of the cancellation.

[SadPanda]

Good point – I usually save important webpages like that as .htm files (saved to my computer), so that the webpage looks the same later as it did when I saved it. But occasionally that doesn't work right (for instance, important images may not load later), so making a screen cap is a good idea too, especially if you don't receive a confirmation email or you're not given a confirmation number for your cancellation.

[Pjmax]

Paypal debit card is great for autopays. Sometimes when you cancel an autopay, it doesn't go through for days or weeks. So whenever I've had to cancel one, I go to The Paypal page for autopays and cancel, or rescind my permission, there also. If a 'cancelled' autopay does go through, when it reaches Paypal, they won't pay it.

[SadPanda]

Regarding the credit score question again - I was just looking at the "My FICO" site (mentioned above), and they have a 10-day free trial, which includes your FICO score. After the trial, it's $14.95 a month. They have another plan for $4.95 a month and it says you get your FICO score with that, but it looks like you can only see your score "quarterly."

[dspii]

$10 a month through Identity Gard, via Costco, best value I found for monthly reports and score. Score is very accurate when I compared to actuals from bank.

[Postbankrupt]

No you are entitled to a free credit score from each credit bureau annually. Try annualcreditreport they give you a free credit score.

[LadyInTheRed]

No you are entitled to a free credit score from each credit bureau annually. Try annualcreditreport they give you a free credit score.

You are not entitled to a score, only a copy of your credit report which does not include the score.