I do not want to sign up for any reoccurring service, I just want to get a report. I have heard that I can get one report free each year but all I see are things that cost from reoccurring services.
Do I have to pay to actually get the score? Seems that maybe the report can be had for free but the score cost $9, is this correct?
I know someone here knows.
What link should I follow?
Stop at your bank and have them pull it.
Credit report (This is the official website for your annual free report) You can get one free each year from each of the 3 credit reporting agencies. https://www.annualcreditreport.com/
Credit Score (Not sure who they use for the score since it does not match with the scores from any of the credit reporting agencies but it is not that far off) https://www.creditkarma.com
There is no ONE credit score. The credit score is based upon the intended usage. In other words you'll have a different score for buying a car, than for a credit card, than for buying a home.
Noxnix is right the annualcreditreport.com is the only official free credit score place. They won't spam you or try to sell you additional things you don't need. You'll never see a legitimate pop up from them either. I thought the credit score cost $12 so $9 is cheap, but it's useless except to get you into the ball park of what your scores are since it would be a generic score and not a score that fit the usage.
Why do you want to see your score? Is it just curiosity or is it that you are about to make a purchase? If it's curiosity then the annualcreditreport generic score will suffice, but if you have a specific purchase in mind then you'll need to have someone else pull it. Keep in mind that every hard pull dings your credit score by 8-10 points so it can be counter productive to have your score pulled as the simple act of pulling it reduces the score itself. Heisenberg Principle in action.
Thanks.
As for why; just tracking progress now that all we have is a home loan and one car (with about $3,000 to go.)
Zero credit card debt.
I think a ballpark score will be fine for me. No purchase immediately but I have a house up for sale (more than a year now) and a new home purchase will follow.
As for $9 that was an estimate, maybe it is $12.
Is there no way to avoid this charge (other than no get the score?)
The https://www.creditkarma.com link will give you a score.
I haven't used creditkarma but if they don't give you a free score there's no way to avoid the charge other than having someone else pull the score which costs you points on your credit score. I would be worried about what type of spam and other junk creditkarma.com might also give you as normally you don't get something for nothing.
If you are looking for zero debt, at some time you will see your credit score drop. A credit score is an indication of how you will pay future bills. It is based upon how you have handled bills in the past. If you have no bills in the past then you have no credit score. Catch 22.
Nowadays it takes a certain number of open pieces of credit to arrive at certain scores. The higher the score, the more pieces of credit required. It seems you need at least 2 open pieces of credit to get and maintain a 620 credit score and possibly as many as 7-8 to get and maintain a high 700 score. The key word there is maintain. You can get a high score for a short time with a smaller number of debts as you pay off or close old accounts, you just can't maintain that score for long.
jrw1621 wrote: Thanks. As for why; just tracking progress now that all we have is a home loan and one car (with about $3,000 to go.) Zero credit card debt.
Be careful paying down all your debt though. I have had nothing on my credit for the last 6 months (paid off all credit cards to 0$, no car loans,) except for my stupid prius lease and my cell phone and I had a huge reduction in score. ~710 to 640 in about 6 months.
Zero credit card debt and not using credit cards is two different things.
If you have a home mortgage, the easy way would be to inquire about a refinance. The first thing they do is to pull your credit scores, and thus you have a copy of everything you ask for.
My wife and I have the intention of paying off our house and being debt free. I'm slightly concerned about what that's going to do to our insurance rates (car, home). Anyone have any insight into that?
Six account still open for me:
Mortgage
Home Equity
4 Credit Cards
One 30 day late on Mortgage in Nov 2006
One 30 day late on one credit card in Sept 2007
Score 904 Grade A
I think that will work for me.
I still need to run my wife's stuff.
PS: to get the score through Experian it was $7.95
Report was free from annualcreditreport.com
Another thumbs up for CreditKarma, haven't noticed any spam offers, and they don't scam you into paying for anything.
I'm assuming by the 904 grade A that that is a Vantagescore credit rating? Does this creditkarma place give FICO. My guess is it doesn't since it's free. Experian, transunion and Equifax have to pay Fair Issacs Co everytime they compute a FICO score. That's why you have to pay to get the "score". The vantagescore was created by the 3 credit agencies to cut out the middleman.
I've not yet seen my wife and my own Vantagescore scores. The home re-finance we signed last Friday just had our 6 FICO scores on it.
Yes, 904 VantageScore
nocones wrote: My wife and I have the intention of paying off our house and being debt free. I'm slightly concerned about what that's going to do to our insurance rates (car, home). Anyone have any insight into that?
legally, they can't increase your rates just because of your credit score. now if you change companies, they might quote you higher rates because of your credit score.
it depends on the company, but i'm told that allstate will only re-run your credit at your request. some companies will check it every year, others every three years.
bottom line is, until your score is zero, where you'd have "no credit history" i think you'd expect it to go up. if you know your agent really well, you could probably bitch that down some, but it depends.
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