If I wanted to check my USA credit status without paying a fee, is there a reliable internet site to do this? I have googled and come across many, many sites that claim to do this. They ask for lots of personal info.
Many of them have low WOT ratings. (http://www.mywot.com/ if you don’t know what WOT is). So what’s the straight dope about looking up one’s credit status? thanks
The correct site is annualcreditreport.com, which was set up by the three major credit bureaus to comply with legislation that mandates every consumer being able to get their own credit report once a year for free.
FTR, this site will allow you to get your credit reports, but it doesn’t allow you to see your credit score (unless it’s changed from last time I did it).
Credit Karma will give you the TransUnion estimate of your FICO score for free, as well as various other less commonly used credit and insurance scores. IME, the FICO estimate is pretty close. A few times, creditors have sent me the credit report they pulled as a courtesy, and the official FICO score was within 10 or 20 points of the Credit Karma estimate.
Note that while Credit Karma is free, they’re a commercial site and they’re in the business of advertising for creditors. Most of the site is plastered with ads with dubious claims about SAVING YOU MONEY. For example: if you refinance your current 3%, 3-year auto loan with this 4%, 6-year loan, you will save hundreds of dollars*! *on payments for the next six months.
Seconding creditkarma. Just don’t click on the ads.
Thirding it. Quite helpful and easy to use.
Another vote for creditkarma. Been using them for 3 years and never any problems.
Important to emphasize it is an estimate, like similar sites Credit.com and Quizzle. I’ve found that their scores tend to be on the low side, sometimes significantly. My actual TransUnion score was more than 50 points higher than Credit Karma’s estimate.