Financially Tough » Free Credit Score http://www.financiallytough.com Getting Tough With Your Money Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:51:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Free Credit Report and Score http://www.financiallytough.com/free-credit-report-and-score http://www.financiallytough.com/free-credit-report-and-score#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:54:43 +0000 http://www.financiallytough.com/?p=40 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Is there such a thing as free credit report and score.  The answer is not really.  There is a free credit report, but there is nothing that is a true free credit score.

Your credit report is avaiable to you free one time per year.  This is a requirement by law.  It helps consumers see what accounts are saying about them.  Also, today consumers need access to check for errors and identity theft.

Credit scores are often adveritsed as free but are they really?  The answer is yes and no.  If even you run across an offer for a free credit score it is going to include one thing.  You signing up for a credit monitoring service of some sort.  These are not bad, but they make your credit score not really free.

How can the companies that offer these really get away with this?  The do something very smart.  They say if you sign up we will give you your credit score and the credit monitoring is free for the first few weeks or month.  Then if you don’t cancel it you will be charged.  So it is free at first, but it just has some strings attached.

If you want to get to a free credit report and score you will need to cancel before the billing takes effect.  Actually, you will need to cancel in the time they give you to cancel.  Some companies state the first month is free, but you need to cancel within the first two weeks or so to not be charged.  You have to be very careful and actually read the fine print.

I am not against credit monitoring and it is a good product.  It is a cheap way to keep your identity safe and get access to your credit report and score more than once per year.  I am just telling you need to know what you are getting into.

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]]> http://www.financiallytough.com/free-credit-report-and-score/feed 0 How do you get a Free Credit Score Online? http://www.financiallytough.com/how-do-you-get-a-free-credit-score-online http://www.financiallytough.com/how-do-you-get-a-free-credit-score-online#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:04:26 +0000 http://www.financiallytough.com/?p=3
  • Credit Score Do’s and Dont’s There are so much advice out these about how to...
    • Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]>     The truth is there really is no such thing as a free credit score online. That is because you have to pay for your credit score. A credit report is free, but not a credit score. There is one way around this you can try.

    This is going to take you signing up for a product, credit monitoring and then canceling it before you are charged. This is the only way to get a free credit score online.

    Credit monitoring is a service offered by many different companies like the three major credit bureaus. They monitor your credit 24/7 365 days a year. They look for changes and potential indications of identity theft. It really is the choice of people looking to get a good credit score.

    So this is how you get a free credit score online. You must sign up for one of these credit monitoring services. That does mean you have to put down a credit card. Most credit monitoring services will not charge you up front. The best ones have a 30 day free trial. So you then have 30 days to review your credit report an unlimited amount of times. This will also give you a free credit score online instantly.

    Then you must decide whether to keep the credit monitoring or cancel it. Credit monitoring is usually a monthly charge, but can be purchased at a reduced price up front for the whole year. It is really what people do when they want an excellent credit score or even good credit score. If you don’t want it then cancel it. This will prevent you from being charged for you free online credit score.

    You have to be careful because you do have a grace period to cancel these. OK, maybe this is a bit dishonest, but it is totally allowed by their terms and conditions. In my opinion credit monitoring is actually worth paying for. Why? Because today there are some many different things that threaten your credit. It is nice to have something watching it for you. And if you are like me, lazy, I don’t want to be reviewing my credit report for identity theft. I would rather have someone do it for me. Also, if you want a good credit score, you have to look at your credit report more than once per year and this is going to cost money. Often this is going to cost more than credit monitoring. But with credit monitoring, I have unlimited access to my credit report. So it is actually saves me money.

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