Is there a website where I can get my actual credit score? Not a credit report, but the actual number? I tried [link removed] about two months ago, and to date I have received NOTHING. A friend used it about the same time and did get a credit report, but his credit SCORE doesn’t appear anywhere on that.
Your credit score is a proprietary calculation of each of the three major credit companies. You have to go to them to get it. All you are entitled to for free is your credit report. The site you linked to should work for your credit report - it’s the legit federal credit reporting site.
http://www.usa.gov/topics/money/credit/credit-reports/bureaus-scoring.shtml
Is it on purpose that they are all so vague about how to get that actual sacred secret magical mystical number? Credit reports from all three agencies say clearly that you can purchase the number for a price, but none of them say clearly how to go about doing so.
I vaguely recall that I carefully read all the fine print buried at the back of one of those reports, and there was some inconspicuous instruction about how to order the number. It wasn’t like there was an order form there and you could just check off a box and mail it with a check to get it. I think it required going to a web site to order, or making a phone call.
ETA: The late Washington Mutual Bank offered a perk with their credit cards: Every WaMu credit card holder could go on-line to their site and see your credit score, at any time, for FREE. I think they updated once a month. When WaMu went KaPuT and Chase took over, they dropped that service. A Chase customer service rep told me that it was tooooooo expensive.
I use Credit Karma. It’s totally free and gives your score.
If I read it correctly, it gives you a score, but not ones from the three major credit rating agencies. It’s calculated by Credit Karma and may or may not be similar to the “official” scores.
For a non-defunct option, Discover Card provides the score on your monthly bill.
It’s not, in fact. The OP linked to [link removed] (note the misspelling), which redirects to [link removed] and is not the legitimate Federal site. The correct site is of course www.annualcreditreport.com.
Not trying to be nitpicky here–the entire credit-scoring system is a hive of scum and villainy and a single-character typo could well result in identity theft or other problems. It’s really important to get this stuff right.
The score comes from Trans Union.
Of course, but how much of a difference can there be?
[QUOTE=Senegoid]
Is it on purpose that they are all so vague about how to get that actual sacred secret magical mystical number? Credit reports from all three agencies say clearly that you can purchase the number for a price, but none of them say clearly how to go about doing so.
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I’ve never done it, but I don’t think it’s so vague. To get your FICO score, I think you just click on a link, fill out your personal information, give them a payment number, and that’s it. It’s a product they sell to you just like they sell to anyone else.
There is no difference. Credit Karma uses Trans Union which is one of the big 3 major credit reporting bureaus.
CK is pretty thorough including all my accounts and scores. And they’ve never asked me for a credit card.
I didn’t know that. I couldn’t find that on their website.
I go on the site once a week. When you sign on it shows your Trans Union score. It get’s updated about once every 10 days. I just paid a loan off on 12/20 and it doesn’t reflect that yet. I’ll check again on monday
Good catch. I have reported the OP for a moderator to fix or break the link.
Moderator Note
Since the mispelled link redirected to a scam site, I removed the links in the OP and elsewhere in this thread. I also removed the scam site’s address in Dr. Strangelove post even though it wasn’t a valid link, just so that viglink can’t make a link out of it.
Another happy creditkarma user.
Its nice to have some kind of a guide and you can see alot of good info. I am pretty sure they make all their money referring people to credit sources. By using them I found out what was hurting me and have already made a few changes that have increased my credit by 15 points over the last few months (reducing CC balances, paid off one collection item that was still going to be hovering for a few years). One of them I am not going to bother paying off as it will drop on its own in like 4 months. Once I get a few more points to the good I am going to apply for another credit card as one of my downratings according to CK is a low number of credit lines. So the combination of the new line plus an increase in available credit/lower overall utilization should = win/win
If you pull the report for free online, getting your score is as easy as checking a box and entering payment information. You get the score instantly.
Okay, I didn’t know that. Are you talking about ordering the report at the official Annual Credit Report dot com site? I’ve never ordered on-line, Luddite that I am. I always fill out the paper form and mail it. (I keep a stash of photocopied forms, almost entirely pre-filled-in since most of it never changes, so this is always a quick and easy option.)
ETA: The paper form does not have an option to order the score, nor does it have any instructions for doing so.
I just signed up for and used Credit Karma.
No financial data required - they ask for a “Mobile Phone” number, but will accept a land line (I don’t do cell).
The score and info looked legit, and the number was ID’d as from one of the 3 (short term memory is shot).
A big plus - in the usual check boxes, the one for “Important info and targeted offers” was NOT pre-checked.
I just signed up for and used Credit Karma.
No financial data required - they ask for a “Mobile Phone” number, but will accept a land line (I don’t do cell).
The score and info looked legit, and the number was ID’d as from one of the 3 (short term memory is shot).
A big plus - in the usual check boxes, the one for “Important info and targeted offers” was NOT pre-checked.
There is also Credit.com, which provides you with “Experian’s National Equivalency Score,” whatever the hell that is.
They’ll also give you your “VantageScore,” which you can also get from Credit Karma and Quizzle. It’s notable that your VantageScore will be different on each site (at least mine is, YMMV), so you can interpret that however you wish.
I have done comparisons with the scores from these sites and my actual lender FICO scores, which were provided to me when I got home and auto loans a few years ago (and a couple of years apart). The “fake” scores from the sites listed above were about 10-20 points higher than the scores I was shown on the reports from my lenders. The Credit Karma score was the most accurate (but still almost 10 points higher).
So all in all, I would conclude that these sites will get you in the ballpark, even close to a specific section of the ballpark, but are still not the actual score your lender uses to assess your credit. Still a good tool, though.
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