Credit Checking

While I do love the catchy jingles of freecreditreport.com their service is not actually free. Thankfully thanks to our federal government everyone can receive their credit report from each Equifax, Trans-Union, and Experian once per year. And it is actually free! Additionally if you live in certain states you may be entitled to a free report through the state system. I know Colorado has this.

So what? This report allows you to see all your credit lines, and whether payments are accounted on them correctly. Still this doesn’t help you determine how good or bad your credit is relative to others ala a credit score. This of course can be purchased, but may still be meaningless as every creditor can calculate a credit score with different criteria. A credit score of 700 from Experian may not be a score of 700 when Chase looks at your credit report for financing. Their are credit cards that allow you to get your credit score for free, as well as your report for free monthly.(US Bank offers one) Quite a nice perk, considering others are paying for it.

There are additional websites that provide a credit report and offer free trials, you have to decide if you would like to use them or not as a free credit score alternative.