Is there an actual way to see my credit score for FREE?

No, your credit report does not contain your credit score. No, you cannot get your credit score for free. You can sign up with various companies that will let you view your credit score by way of partaking in their service. And you can get your credit report from each of the three main credit reporting bureaus once a year, for free, from the government.

So what then, is the cheapest way to see my actual current credit score online. Can i pay $10 for something like that anywhere, or does it have to be $40?

I think I paid less, it was like $10 for a one time look on one of the credit bureaus I think? I did it a few years ago. It makes sense that if you are going to run all three that it might be $40. What website are you using?

@futurelaker88 I don’t know, because it’s never been relevant to me. There’s no reason to believe those commercials that insist to you that if you don’t know your credit score, you’re doomed for financial ruin. They’re commercials. They’re trying to sell you something.

Look at your credit report. Check to make sure there’s nothing inaccurate. Dispute anything that is. If you pay bills late, start paying them on time. If you have a bunch of outstanding balances on your cards, try consolidating. The actual number isn’t nearly as important as what the number is based on.

you can. You are entitled to a free report every year directly from the 3 credit agencies. No charge. Go to experian directly, etc. the score is irrelevant if you dont have negative remarks, missed payments.

Check with your bank. Some offer it as part of your banking service.

@jazmina88 Free credit report, but not free credit score from how I understand it.

YES YES YES. yes you can see a free credit REPORT, not SCORE.

You’re LEGALLY allowed one credit score annually from each of the 3 major credit companies (equifax, trans-union, and I forget). Go to their websites and they’ll walk you through it.

@tedd not that i dont believe you, but how come you’re the only person i’ve heard say this? everyone says i can see my “report” once a year free, which all the websites say as well. Nothing says i can see my score.

https://www.econsumer.equifax.com/otc/order.ehtml?prod_cd=ESN3

That’s equifax page after i clicked “Get started.”

Yah i meant report, not score, I typed them backwards before.

You are allow a free credit report each year, and I believe this is the site that allows you to obtain that free report:

www.annualcreditreport.com

Hey, futurelaker88, the previous answer by wgallios is exactly correct, as is the link. And just to reiterate, you can see your report from each company once a year for free, but it always costs to see your score.

@futurelaker88 What is so important about the “score”?
The report is is the information that you change and improve. The score is the several years of reports.

@Austinlad and @futurelaker88 If you really think about it, knowing your score doesn’t really do you any good even when trying to get a line of credit. Credits are not going to look at your score to determine your odds of defaulting. They are going to look at other factors such as payment history, Debt to Income ratio, how much credit you have to how much you have available, length of credit history, types of credit, and any other negative factors. The score is entirely based upon your report; fix your report, increase your score and vice versa.

I guess it all depends on what you are trying to do, if you just want to know the number so you can sleep better a night then you’ll probably have to pay, else if you are trying to fix your credit report, or try to obtain a loan, its probably better to get the report, which again is free.

Do note, many companies like equifax will offer fraud insurance should your identity be stolen if you pay the $15/month to always have access to your report (for them up to like $1,000,000), I have found many companies do not offer this simply for knowing your score. If your really concerned about your credit, I would suggest understanding your report might be the better route.

You could try going to a lender and asking them, although I suspect they would also charge for the score. Also, be aware that the credit score is only one of several criteria the lender uses to decide whether to give a loan or not.

Actually, if you go to a lender for the lone they will run your credit, and will probably be willing to tell you. Rememebr every time you have your credit run it negatively impacts your score.

Can you save for a year or two and buy it cash? Or, is their a particular deal on a boat right now? I think you can get the loan if you are puting down a significant amount.

Your credit report is free, your credit score or number is not free.

If you really don’t want to pay, try going to your own bank and asking them to run it for you.

I have a yearly service with Privacy Guard, pretty cheap, sends alerts if anything changes including fluctuations in credit score, requests to see credit score, additions of credit cards, etc, and any time I want I can go download my credit reports and can track fluctuations in credit score over time. It is worth it.

@anartist We have a similar service, but ours is paid for by a company that allowed our personal information to be accessed by an outside source, and now they have to provide a privacy watch service.

@YARNLADY how did that happen to you?

@anartist The company inadvertently released personal information of customers.

@YARNLADY a privacy company? A financial instution?

@anartist A financial institution

o, gotcha. well lucky you—I hope it is a lifetime deal as long as you are with that institution.

www.creditkarma.com provides free credit scores from Transunion.

@mirifique Be forewarned that the score provided by CreditKarma is from TransUnion. It’s not the FICO score that lenders actually use.

@mirifique Take a look at the comments in http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/credit-karma-review.html. Results are decidedly mixed. Some people report that their score on CK is within 10 points of their real score, while others show it’s off by nearly 100.

@MrItty To your first comment—didn’t I say that?

Yes. This site or this site will give you the score for free as long as you sign up [and then cancel the trial right after you get it]