Although every US citizen can check credit score for free, the majority have no idea how to do it right. You are legally entitled to a free report once a year from the government approved site, annualcreditreport.com. The credit files tell only part of the story. You can see everything that goes into calculating your FICO score or credit score. However, these reports don't tell you what your credit score is. However, it is still great that you can check credit score for free.
Knowing your FICO score can tell you if you qualify for a personal loan, car loan or mortgage loan. You can also get a fairly good idea what your interest rate you qualify for will be with the credit score you have. The free credit reports don't tell you what your possible credit score is.The ubiquitous formula they use to calculate your credit score is not published outside the credit reporting agencies. The only way is to get your FICO score from TranUnion, Equifax and Experian. The most difficult part is, these credit reporting agencies don't easily give your credit score.
You can check credit score for free from these agencies. However, you need to sign up for their paid services like credit monitoring. There are also all kinds of offers online, offering to let you check credit score for free. The problem is that every such offer is a trial offer.
Free Credit Score from Experian is one such program, which gives you a 7-day trial membership. If you don't cancel the service within a week, you will be charged almost $15 per month. There are other programs like My FICO Score Watch by Fair Isaac Corporation and a credit monitoring program from Equifax. They too start charging you monthly or annually. These programs do allow you to check credit score for free – although while using the costly credit monitoring programs.
Why is it important to check your credit report and credit score? The first thing is about qualifying for loans at lower interest rates. However, there is an even bigger goal for checking credit reports – protection against identity theft. If identity thieves get access to your personal information like your social security number, phone number, address, date of birth, etc, they can easily dupe other companies. They use your information to open credit cards, get phone connections, and for getting loans. If you see any credit account, phone number, or any activity you don't recognize in your credit report, you can get it corrected. Communicate to the credit reporting agency with a clearly drafted letter, explaining the situation. The reporting agency will contact the company with which the identity thief has opened an account in your name. This is one big reason why you must check your credit report at least once in three months.
Can I check credit score for free? In normal cases, you can't. However, if you sign up for credit monitoring programs available online, you can get your credit score for free. Apply caution before entering your personal details. Is the website reliable? That must be the first question you must ask. You can't go on entering your personal details at every website you see. Some of them might be outright frauds. Others will charge you membership fees after luring you in with free offers. Some legitimate companies do offer credit score checks at very low costs. That is the closest you can get to check credit score for free.