Are Credit Reporting Agencies Required to Provide a Credit Score?

In the United States three consumer reporting agencies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- compile consumer credit reports. In certain situations you are entitled to a free credit report from each of these agencies. However, the credit report does not contain your actual score and these firms are under no legal obligation to share your score with you, although, generally you can obtain it if you agree to pay a fee.

Report Versus Score

Your credit report contains information related to your credit history including details of your payment history on accounts that you currently hold, as well as records of unpaid debts and events, such as foreclosures and car repossessions. Credit reporting agencies use information listed on your credit report to calculate your credit score. If you have a good credit history, then you have a high credit score, and you have a low score if you have had past problems with your credit. Each credit agency has its own scoring system, but the scores range from 300 to 850.

Information Sharing

Credit agencies can share information listed on your credit file with lenders, service providers and even your employer -- but only if you provide your consent. These entities and organizations must pay a fee to obtain your credit report and the report the agency provides to these entities includes your credit score. Under federal law, you are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report from each of the credit reporting agencies once every 12 months. You are also entitled to a free report within 60 days of being declined for credit, but only if the lender cited your credit report as the reason for the declination. However, federal laws does not entitle you to have free access to your actual credit score and, therefore, the credit reporting agencies require you to pay a fee to see this score.

Reporting

Lenders typically make monthly reports to the credit reporting agencies with data relating to credit accounts. However, a lender can only submit data to a credit bureau if it has established a credit reporting account with that bureau and doing that costs money. Some lenders reduce costs by only establishing reporting relationships with one of the credit reporting agencies. This means that your credit file at Experian may look very different from your credit report at Equifax or TransUnion and these differences also impact your credit scores.

Considerations

Credit reporting agencies rely on information provided from creditors, as well as information contained in public records, to compile your credit report. However, if you never establish any credit accounts and pay your debts on time with cash, then the bureaus would have little or no information to list on your report. A credit bureau cannot give you a credit score if it has insufficient data to calculate your score. Many people who rely on cash rather than credit simply do not have credit scores.