Your credit score influences many facets of your life. The interest rate on your home, the fees associated with your credit card and deposits paid to utility or cell phone companies are all based on your credit rating. You can obtain a copy of your credit score in many ways.
Credit Bureaus
The three major credit bureaus allow you to view your credit score for a small fee. The features that come with viewing your score vary based on the type of product your purchase. For example, Experian offers the option of purchasing your credit score along with monitoring services that help you manage your score each month. When your score increases or decreases, you receive an alert by email detailing the reason your score changed. Monthly subscription fees apply to these services. Read the fine print before ordering your score to ensure you are making a one-time payment to view your score unless you are interested in additional products or services.
Installment Loan Shopping
When purchasing a car or home, your credit score is pulled multiple times by lenders before your loan is approved. Many lenders, loan officers or mortgage brokers allow you to view your credit score when you are shopping for a loan. The score you view should reflect the same scores you would receive from the three major credit bureaus.
FICO scores are the most common type of credit score, but there are lenders that use Beacon or Emperia to gauge your credit worthiness. Beacon is the credit score created by Equifax and Emperia is by TransUnion while FICO is the industry standard, produced by Fair Isaac Corporation.
Free Online Resources
There are a range of free online credit score monitoring websites available to help you maintain access to your score. However, make sure you know where the information is coming from by reading the terms of the site. Ensure the information you receive is up to date and reflects your FICO score. If you are skeptical of free credit score resources, run a comparison by retrieving your score from a major credit bureau, then comparing it to the score obtained on the free site.
Free Report
Your credit score is determined by information in your credit report. Though credit scores are not free, your credit report is, once a year. Get it from the Annual Credit Report website. You can also request a free report if you are denied credit, legal action is brought against you based on information in your report, you are on public assistance or you are unemployed. It is impossible to make changes to your score without knowing what's in your credit report.
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