From apartments and mortgage rates to car loans and credit card perks, your credit score dictates so many details of your financial life.
You’d think that, with credit scores being so important to a person’s finances, they’d be easily accessible to the public. Unfortunately, you have to do a bit of digging in order to find an accurate picture of your credit score.
These are the four easiest and most reliable ways to find your credit score.
1. Check with Your Credit Card Company
If you have a current loan statement—such as a credit card or mortgage loan— you might already have access to your credit score as select lenders provide free credit score updates to their customers.
Lending companies may share your credit score in one of several delivery methods, including:
- Recurring updates: Your lender may send your updated credit score to you on a quarterly or monthly basis via your email, app, or online portal.
- Update by request: Other lenders require customers to submit a request (by email, app, or phone) to view their credit score. Once you submit a credit score request, most credit card companies will provide you with an updated score immediately.
- Constant update: Some lenders allow customers to view their up-to-date credit scores around-the-clock, either in an app or web portal.
If you’re already a customer of a large credit card company or lender, we’d recommend this method as the easiest way to receive a reliable credit score.
2. Speak with a Non-Profit Counselor
Non-profit credit counselors offer financial advice and budgetary tools to anyone, no matter a person’s economic situation.
Most non-profit credit counselors are able to provide you with your up-to-date credit score. Some counselors will even provide this service for free. When speaking with a non-profit credit counseling service, be sure to ask up front how much it would cost to view your credit score.
Don’t trust every credit counseling service you find online. Some of these counselors will be for-profit companies in disguise, while others may be outright scams. When searching, ensure your agency is accredited with either the Financial Counseling Association of America or the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.
If you have a trusted non-profit credit counselor nearby, this method may be the best way to speak to a live professional about your credit score.
3. Use a Free Credit Score Service
If you’re not afraid to give up some personal information (name, email address, cookies), there’s a host of websites that will send you your credit score for free.
In exchange for your credit score, these sites will serve you ads (pop-ups) or collect some form of identifying information (email) from you. If you do your research and are comfortable with having your information collected, these sites can be a fast way to access your credit score.
Note: Some “free” credit score sites will appear free at first, but will eventually require you to sign up for a subscription or pay a one-time fee. We recommend you avoid these sites—if you’re willing to pay for your credit score, you’ll be better served by checking out the fourth source on our list.
4. Purchase Your Scores from the Big Three
If you’re looking for the most accurate and up-to-date credit scores that money can buy, you’ll find them for sale directly from the Big Three credit reporting services.
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are known as the Big Three credit reporting agencies because they are responsible for collecting, summarizing, and crunching the lending and credit information of every American to generate credit scores.
The Big Three create multi-year audits of each person’s credit history in a free document known as a credit report. Note: Despite the similar names, your free credit report does not contain your credit score.
For a small fee, each of the Big Three will send you your credit score. For the most well-rounded result, pay for your credit score from each of the three agencies (as the algorithms they use to generate credit scores are different) and take the average of the three scores.
If you want the most accurate credit score possible, this is the method for you.
Improve Your Finances with Help from Debt Consolidation
If your credit score isn’t looking so good, it might be time to deal with any unpaid debts you’re struggling with. Luckily, we know a few pros who can help you out.
At GetDebtConsolidation.org, we’ve gathered a list of the best debt consolidation companies out there. In addition to meeting 1-on-1 to review your financial situation, debt consolidation professionals can help you gather all of your debts into one, easy-to-pay loan.
Help improve your credit score by solving your debt problem, today.
