Your credit score cannot be taken lightly and you must do everything in your power to build a good credit score. Credit providers, employers, landlords, utility companies, mobile phone providers, and many others check your credit score before approving applications for credit cards, loans, houses for rent, and so on. If your credit score is good, you can get larger credit limits and loans at lower rates of interest, but if it is low, you will have to struggle whenever you wish to get hold of some credit.
You can find out your credit score whenever you wish so that you can take the required steps to improve it. If you check your credit score just before you apply for a loan, you can predict if your application will be accepted and how high a rate of interest you will be charged. If your credit score is less that 620, you will find it difficult to get loans with low rates of interest and should settle for higher rates. A good credit score, therefore, puts you well in the way of receiving excellent benefits in the form of credit cards with low APRs, zero annual fees, low rates of interest, and others.
Your credit score is the 3-digit numerical value assigned to your credit report, which is prepared by a number of credit score brands such as Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), the most famous of them all. You can also get your credit report and credit score from the 3 major credit bureaus — TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. Your FICO score is available at MyFico.com for a price. MyFico.com also has a free tool called credit score estimator, which you can use to get an estimation of your credit score by inputting details of your credit history.
Alternatively, you can get your FICO score from TransUnion or Equifax. You can get your credit score at each of these three credit bureaus although each credit bureau might come up with a different credit score. Besides, the credit score provided by these credit bureaus might not be the same as your FICO credit score.
If you don’t want to purchase your credit score, you need not. You can get your credit score, free of charge, at various online services. However, you must be careful about these “free” services because many of them are free only on certain conditions, which you might not be able to satisfy. Read the terms and conditions, especially all those words in fine print, before availing of these services.
You can get your credit score absolutely free of charge, no strings attached, at Credit Karma, which believes that every individual should have free access to his/her credit score. Credit Karma, therefore, allows customers to check their credit score at any time convenient to them. The site also contains valuable tools and credit information, which will help you improve your credit score; what’s more, you can use Credit Karma’s credit advice, credit simulators, and other tools and information for free.