The myFICO credit report package is on discount if you use our myFICO promotional code. Also, we give you 5 ways you can get your free credit scores and reports.
Where To Get Cheap and Free Credit Scores and Reports
1. myFICO: Use a myFICO Promotional Code to get a discount!
You can receive myFICO credit scores and reports for 20% OFF using the promo code FALLFCC11.
myFICO has just reported that their flagship product, FICO Credit Complete, is on sale right now. If you’d like to go the one-stop shop route, you can receive your full credit profile through myFICO, which will provide you your information in one easy package. You can order the comprehensive FICO Credit Complete package which will give you all 3 of your FICO scores and reports (from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) for $38.28 or 20% off from the usual product price of $47.85.
To receive the 20% discount, you can order here by entering promo code FALLFCC11. If you’re after the big picture, then you may want to consider this option.
That said, there are sites out there that can give you your credit scores and reports for free (with a few caveats), which I’m listing below. I’ve seen a few sites on this roster also being reviewed at other cool personal finance blogs like Stop Buying Crap, which you can visit for additional commentary.
2. Credit Karma
Credit Karma is a new site that offers free credit scores. They will charge you nothing for your score. But there’s a small catch — you’ll have to provide your social security number so they can retrieve your credit information. They assure us that they’ve taken steps to ensure the security of our SSNs; as you’d expect, it’s encrypted and shielded on the site. With some exploration, you’ll see that Credit Karma makes their money through the typical affiliate sales and advertising monetization model that free service web sites provide. I’ve perused their blog as well, which has lots of useful credit-related info.
3. KnowBeforeYouApply.com
From KnowBeforeYouApply.com, you’ll get some idea about what your credit score is, without the nitty gritty details. I checked their site and it’s a bit sparse, but you’ll get some information about what they offer from their “Help Desk” section (e.g. their FAQ). The overall premise and goal of the site is to give you some idea of your creditworthiness; it works by giving you a credit grade from A to F, which is formulated through algorithms applied to your credit report and real credit score. They mention that they have relationships with credit bureaus from whence they get the raw info to produce your credit grade. But this site offers more — once you register and get graded, you’ll be taken to your “personalized offers page”, where you’ll be pitched real-time credit and loan products that may suit your credit profile. The credit grade calculation is one step; while the second step involves matching you with credit and loan products.
4. Quizzle
Now here’s an innovative scoring tool. Quizzle (brought to you by Quicken Loans) loves to grade you. It will give you a credit grade, a score, and a credit report. It will give you a specific grade for your home value and appreciation, as well as for your monthly budget, mortgage and rainy day fund. If you’re a fan of scores, you can go score crazy with Quizzle. They also give you an overall Quizzle score to gauge your financial well-being; this number is the combination of your “rank” across all the different subject areas in the tool, from your credit standing to your emergency fund. I found some pretty good information in their FAQ about how they calculate these numbers, such that after a cursory look, my initial impression of this site was “wow, that’s hot!” 
I love stats and scores so this application really piqued my interest, though I’m guessing that somewhere in the tool you’ll find a lead in to Quicken Loans (but I could be wrong).
5. AnnualCreditReport.com
If you’re fine with just picking up your credit reports with all their gory details, then you can get them for free from AnnualCreditReport.com. By law, you’re entitled to receive one free credit report each year, from each of the big consumer credit reporting agencies — Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. You may order these reports all at once to check them against each other and make comparisons, or you can decide to order one every few months so you’ll always have a snapshot of your credit health throughout the year.
6. Credit Score Estimators
The quickest way to get an approximate credit score is by trying out a fast and simple tool that churns out some estimate of your score without requiring you to register and provide your SSN number (partial or otherwise). Some examples of these tools are this credit score calculator, this myFICO score estimator and this MSN Money credit survey. Mind you, these are just basic tools to give you some fuzzy idea about your credit score based on some questions you answer. For the real thing, you’ll have to get it from formal sources like myFICO or Credit Karma.
My Thoughts On These Credit Score and Credit Report Collection Services
According to these companies, using their tools won’t affect your actual credit score. In my mind, each of these tools have a place in the marketplace, as we all use our credit information for various reasons. Depending on your requirements, you may try out all or a few of these resources: if you’d just like some basic idea of your credit standing, some of the newer, free credit score sites may be sufficient. If you want details and the complete picture, myFICO may be your best bet, for the all-in-one data. But to monitor your credit as cheaply as possible (meaning: no payout, no charge), you may get by with simply receiving your annual credit reports, which you can supplement with information you garner from checking your free score or grade via the aforementioned free credit score web sites and estimators.
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The best credit product that I’ve seen is TruCredit. It’s not free, but most things that are good aren’t. I pay $14.95 per month and get as many updated credit reports per month as I want. Also, the service sends a regular email to me about any inquiries, derogative items, etc. I don’t think it has any sort of credit guard feature like LifeLock, but for just monitoring your scores and accounts it totally rocks. The one thing that I found is that the algorithm seems to be very conservative. I refied my house a while back and both lenders that pulled my scores came up 10-15 points higher than TrueCredit. The URL is Truecredit.com
Hope that you are all weathering the storm well!
Joe
Joe,
Hey good to see you back! Well, we’re hanging in there and trying to ignore the bad news. If it gets really bad, I may have to go get a job and rejoin the work force. Sigh. I’d still blog, but I’d have to supplement the income further, right?
Thanks for the tip on TruCredit. I’ll have to check it out.
All of these sites are very good sources to obtain a free credit score or report. Make sure you stay up to date with all of your scores for the 3 combined credit agencies because sometimes they get information mixed up on your report that might not be yours.
cool. I have been thinking about my once a year credit tune up.
1st of all i must thank you for putting up such creative information. It was really worth reading those lines. thanks a lot. and with this i would like to add few points since i have a finance background.It is correctly put that everyone should know their own credit history and manage it prudently with an even better managed lifestyle – credit cards, mortgages, family life, etc. Just remember that you can do the checks yourself and do it free of charge without credit score penalty. Actually, a good bank officer or a broker can help you in this regard.
Thanks for the info on MyFico. I’ve been on the fence about doing it because I didn’t want to spend the money.
Thanks for your post, like using myFico because l get to see my up to date report and score.