When people talk about credit scores and credit reports the word free is usually part of the conversation.
However, not everyone understands that free credit reports and free credit scores may not be available through the credit bureaus.
Credit reports and scores may be sold by various third parties that in one way or another are affiliated with the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). Yet, the sellers may not be considered bureaus themselves. If you are looking for a truly free credit report you should contact one of the major bureaus for instructions on how to do so. You may or may not be eligible to receive a free report by law. One way to find out if you can receive a free consumer disclosure report is to visit Annual credit report .com. This site was set up so that all residents of the U.S. could get a free copy of their credit file every 12 months.
As far as free credit scores are concerned, you can probably get a free score by visiting one of the many sites selling credit report and credit scores. In exchange for enrollment in a membership or as a premium for buying a related product, companies may give you a free credit score. One thing to keep in mind is that credit report scores are not all the same, and as such are calculated differently.
The most well-known credit score is the FICO score. This credit report score was developed by Fair Isaac Corporation and has dominated the credit scoring industry for several decades. Whenever you go buy a car or a house you will hear about your FICO score. Other scores include the Beacon Score, the Empirica score, and soon, the VantageScore.
In the next few months you should hear a lot more about the new VantageScore, which is meant to compete with FICO and is a new way to grade your report. One difference between the VantageScore and the FICO score is the fact that the VantageScore was developed by the three major bureaus themselves. This in itself may help the new score seem more valid. Whether the companies that grant credit actually adopt the Vantage Score remains to be seen. FICO has been, and will probably to continue to be for the foreseeable future, the standard by which all report scoring models are measured. As of 2005, FICO had sold more than 10 million report scores to consumers.
If you are interested in looking up your online free credit report and score or even just a free credit report, you should probably begin by visiting Annualcreditreport.com. Once on that site, you’ll get quite a few up-sell and cross-sell offers for the major bureaus. Whatever you buy or review will be up to you, but at least you can get quite a credit education while you are on the site.