How Do I Find Out My Credit Score?

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Getting your credit score is different from getting your credit reports. When you get your credit reports, you get information such as payment histories, current and past addresses, and information regarding liens, foreclosures and bankruptcies †all of which get reported to the three big credit reporting agencies: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. When a creditor looks at your credit score, however, that’s based on a calculation using your credit report information, information about arrests and convictions, collections histories, total amounts you owe on various cards and loans (and cumulatively) and other information that is all a portrait of your viability as a potential credit or employment risk.

For a fee, you can get your FICO score, which is the cumulative score based on all the information above. FICO (or “Fair Isaac Corporation”) will give you a score for a price, yes, but you can also use a calculator to estimate it fairly closely for free. MyFICO.com has one, and Credit Elves can lead you in the right direction to finding out the information, too. Since ...
... you’re going to start your quest for cleaner credit with copies of your three credit reports, you’ll need to check each of those for accuracy before you start worrying about your score. If you find any incorrect information listed on your credit reports, follow instructions from Credit Elves about how to dispute the information for free, and use a Dispute Letter template provided by them. These letters include the account information, your name and Social Security Number, the account number, and copies of any relevant paperwork that will prove your claim that a charge is inaccurate. When you’ve received a decision from the creditor or credit-reporting agency in writing (and if a change is being made), you’ll be entitled to another free copy of your credit report, noting the new information.

Don’t fall for the advertisements and credit counseling companies that promise you outrageous results. Oftentimes, they are merely shill corporations that will try to sell you their high-interest credit cards or loans, which carry with them outrageous annual fees and convenience charges. They’ll try to rook you into signing up for a recurring fee service that monitors your credit, when it’s something you can do yourself for free.

After you’ve gone through the steps of clearing up any misinformation contained on your credit report, then get your credit score. It might behoove you to take all these steps before going to a lending institution for a major loan, to save yourself the embarrassment of perhaps being turned down, and so you’ll be forearmed with accurate information should any disputes arise. You’ll be able to say, “No, wait a minute. I just got my credit score from so-and-so and you should take another look at me as viable loan applicant.” Merely showing up with your good looks and a smile probably isn’t going to be enough to get a house loan. Showing up with paperwork that shows what work you’ve done to improve your credit score is certainly going to make a creditor take a second look at you.