# Whats the best way to get you credit score? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 31, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153 "2010-08-31T16:23:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/1 "2010-08-31T16:23:35Z")
I know about annualcreditreport. But it just tells you whats on the report, not your score. Is there any place to get a score once a year for free. I want to make sure I avoid a scam site or a site that wants to charge me if i’m entitled to one free. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/2 "2010-08-31T16:34:14Z")
You can probably go to a car dealer and get them to run your report for free. You just need to say you might buy a car from them. The downside is this will show up on your report as an inquiry which can lower your score a little if you have too many. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/3 "2010-08-31T16:41:59Z")
Go to your bank and talk to one of people behind a desk (not the teller). If they have any concept of customer service at all, they’ll pull your report right then and there. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/4 "2010-08-31T17:09:24Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Go to your bank and talk to one of people behind a desk (not the teller). If they have any concept of customer service at all, they’ll pull your report right then and there. It’s odd that a bank, a car dealer,a dept store etc can easily get my score but _I_ have to jump through hoops to get my own score. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/5 "2010-08-31T17:32:45Z")
The credit report system is set up to be used by businesses not the consumer. It’s been a fairly recent thing that people would look at their own report. A lot of that is generated by identity theft - you need to make sure nobody is opening accounts in your name. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/6 "2010-08-31T18:40:03Z")
You can easily get your score too at [myfico.com](http://myfico.com) - you just have to pay for it, just like your bank or car dealer would. Of course they buy in bulk and probably pay a lot less for it. If you go that route google [myfico.com](http://myfico.com) coupon codes - should always be able to find at least 15-20% off. Now there are some specialty scores that I don’t think you can get easily but your basic fico score is easy enough to get. ---
**Author:** ![maleinblack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@maleinblack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maleinblack)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/7 "2010-08-31T19:20:15Z")
You can also try getting a fairly accurate estimate for free thru [creditkarma.com](http://creditkarma.com). It is a legit site and works with TransUnion. I have used them frequently. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/8 "2010-08-31T20:50:09Z")
[Quizzle.com](http://Quizzle.com) offers a free score but only at lengthy intervals of time (when you sign up and at every 180 days thereafter IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/9 "2010-09-02T20:41:47Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > I know about annualcreditreport. But it just tells you whats on the report, not your score. Is there any place to get a score once a year for free. I want to make sure I avoid a scam site or a site that wants to charge me if i’m entitled to one free. [Myfico.com](http://Myfico.com) has a service that monitors your credit (sort of like the “free credit report dot com” thing). You can get the score from _one_ credit agency (Experian, I think) as part of this. It’s free for 10 days, then they charge 12.95 a month. I just did this the other day - we’re thinking of refinancing and I figured it’d be worth it. I just need to remember to cancel the service before it costs anything. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/10 "2010-09-04T14:34:54Z")
> [@threemae](#): > > [Quizzle.com](http://Quizzle.com) offers a free score but only at lengthy intervals of time (when you sign up and at every 180 days thereafter IIRC). Thanks for the link. It was free and easy. My score was considerably less than what I was quoted by a car dealer when I bought my car last year though. I wonder what I did between then and now to cause that. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/11 "2010-09-04T14:38:32Z")
The [myfico.com](http://myfico.com) score page will list some of the things that have affected your score, in either direction (mine was lowered somewhat by a new credit card I got last fall). ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/12 "2010-09-04T16:10:55Z")
My credit union gives me mine every 45 days. When I went to refinance my mortgage, that bank said that the FICO score given to me by my credit union was not the same FICO score that they used - despite the fact that my credit union says that it is my FICO score. I don’t know what he meant by all that, but my score is high regardless so I didn’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-you-credit-score/552153/13 "2010-09-05T02:44:36Z")
Once a year, you can get a free credit report from [here](https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp). Joe