Where to Check Your Credit Score for Free
With the abundance of personal finance apps, sites, and services available, you no longer have to rely on just a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major bureaus you are eligible to every year to figure out where your finances are. …
But because of the information you provide, especially the last four digits of your social security number, you obviously don’t want to trust any site that offers you a report. Fortunately, there are many reputable sites that offer you a version of your account, probably including your own bank.
Another note: in exchange for “free” reports and ratings, you will be sent promotional emails or advertisements for certain credit cards or other financial products.
Credit rating
Most of the free results you will be able to view are your VantageScore . This is not the same as your FICO rating, which is still used by most lenders, but it is pretty close. For example, the CreditWise Capital One website offers everyone Transunion VantageScore 3.0. The Credit Karma app I like the most for queries like this offers VantageScore from both Equifax and Transunion, and the NerdWallet app also offers your rating as well as ways to improve it.
But in some places you will be shown your FICO score, including Discover, which will make it available to everyone, not just cardholders, on its CreditScorecard website . Your FICO score is updated every 30 days and you can download reports to compare with future entries.
American Express, Bank of America, Barclaycard US, Chase, Citi, and several other financial institutions also offer free ratings to customers.
Credit report
You will need to request your annual report from AnnualCreditReport.com for the full report, but some of the apps and sites mentioned above are also pretty comprehensive and will work if you’re just trying to figure out where you stand and see which ones you have. bad marks.
Credit Karma, which will show any invoices you have in your collection and give you the ability to directly dispute errors. You can also check out Capital One’s Bankrate , CreditWise, and Credit Sesame reports, and Experian offers an unofficial free report here that is updated every 30 days. Again, they won’t be as comprehensive as your national credit report, but they are still worth checking from time to time.
Finally, Chase’s CreditJourney, Capital One and Credit Karma also offer free credit monitoring. To be 100% safe, you can invest in a real monitoring service or freeze your accounts, but know that these tools will send you an email if a new account appears on your report.
These free appraisal apps and sites will not be entirely accurate – because that is quite frankly impossible – but by paying attention to the range that your appraisal falls into, you will get a good idea of where you will stand with lenders. If you would like to increase your score, read more here .