Checking credit score more than once per year

**kv968** · 12-03-2007, 06:30 PM

Did you get your report from www.annualcreditreport.com and if so did you get it from all three agencies at once? If you only got a report from one of them, you can still get free reports from the other two. The free annual report is per agency. What I do is spread them out and get one report from a different agency every 4 months. That way although I might not have a "complete" report, I can monitor my credit throughout the year for free. If you did get reports from all 3 companies at once, the cheapest way to do it again before the year is up might be just to go back to the individual agencies and run it again. Transunion has a "3-in-1 credit report" with a score (not an actual FICO score) for $29.95.

**project15** · 12-03-2007, 06:32 PM

Yup, I got all three at once using freecreditropert.com (which I cancelled after a few days so not to be chraged like the other post was complaining about). It was my first time checking and I wanted to be sure they all said the same thing at the time. That's a good idea about spreading them out every 4 months.

**MonkeyMama** · 12-03-2007, 06:34 PM

If you want your credit score for free, sign up for a WAMU account. I am not sure which type of accounts offer it, but I have a credit card with them and they show my FICO every month. Probably has to be a credit card since they report to the credit bureau every month (not sure they would bother on a checking account?).

Well, an idea. Most places that give you a real FICO score are expensive.

Do you have any mortgage broker friends willing to check? That's how I got my score in the past. (I mean we were serious about real estate, but never got charged for the credit pull since it was a friend).

**project15** · 12-03-2007, 06:44 PM

I'm looking at the three different credit beaurous and they all offer to give my credit score along with all 3 reporting agencies. Here are the prices:

TransUnion - $29.95 - with credit score
Equifax: Credit Reports, Credit Scores, Protection Against Identity Theft - $29.95 - no credit score
Experian | Free Credit Report and Credit Score | Check Your Online Credit Report Today. - $34.95 with credit score
www.myfico.com - $47.85 with FICO credit scores for each agency

I would normally go with the cheapest one, but I'm leaning toward myfico.com since it may not be as biased towards one agency as some of the others might be. Any advice?

**kv968** · 12-04-2007, 06:01 AM

My Fico might be the best way to go although it's the most expensive. The only bureau (actually they're businesses) that gives you a real FICO score when using annualcreditreport.com is Equifax. Although I've gotten my score from Transunion and it was only a couple of points off of my real FICO score so I imagine they're all pretty similiar. It most likely depends on what each credit bureau has on you.

Another way you may be able to a credit report and score would be to sign up for one of their ongoing monitoring services, which are cheaper, and then just cancel after getting the report. Although they're probably onto people doing that and somewhat lock you into a contract before you can truly cancel. I've never done it so I'm not sure. Let us know what you decide and how it worked out.

**kv968** · 12-04-2007, 06:03 AM

Originally posted by MonkeyMama View Post

If you want your credit score for free, sign up for a WAMU account. I am not sure which type of accounts offer it, but I have a credit card with them and they show my FICO every month. Probably has to be a credit card since they report to the credit bureau every month (not sure they would bother on a checking account?).

Well, an idea. Most places that give you a real FICO score are expensive.

Do you have any mortgage broker friends willing to check? That's how I got my score in the past. (I mean we were serious about real estate, but never got charged for the credit pull since it was a friend).

Although both are good ideas, they also both most likely will show up as a "hard pull" on the credit report and may knock the score down a little bit if there have been other recent ones.

**Ima saver** · 12-04-2007, 06:52 AM

The last time I got my actual score was from equifax and it was only about $10!

**momof1in150** · 12-04-2007, 07:08 AM

The only way to guarantee that it doesn't show up as a hardpull on your credit report is to order through my fico or by getting you free annual report. The only people that can give you true myfico scores is myfico. They have the confidential scoring system that only they use. Everyone else can purchase through them or have something they think is close to the scoring system.

Credit Inquiries: How Credit Checks Affect Your FICO Score - myFICO

**disneysteve** · 12-04-2007, 08:45 AM

For the OP, if you got your reports through freecreditreport.com, I wonder if you are still eligible to get them from annualcreditreport.com. I'd suggest checking that route.

**vsjhoc** · 12-04-2007, 10:12 AM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

For the OP, if you got your reports through freecreditreport.com, I wonder if you are still eligible to get them from annualcreditreport.com. I'd suggest checking that route.

OP can still get them from annualcreditreport.com.

Freecreditreport.com has nothing to do with the real FICO scores. Any scores from there, or scores obtained directly from TransUnion or Experian are "FAKOs" -- there can be as much as 100 points' difference from the FICOs.

In some states, you can get another set of free reports every 12 months. Unfortunately for OP, Illinois is not one of them.

If you are ordering all 3 reports and scores from myFICO.com, first do a Google search of "FICO and discount".

**project15** · 12-04-2007, 03:44 PM

Originally posted by vsjhoc View Post

OP can still get them from annualcreditreport.com.

Freecreditreport.com has nothing to do with the real FICO scores. Any scores from there, or scores obtained directly from TransUnion or Experian are "FAKOs" -- there can be as much as 100 points' difference from the FICOs.

In some states, you can get another set of free reports every 12 months. Unfortunately for OP, Illinois is not one of them.

If you are ordering all 3 reports and scores from myFICO.com, first do a Google search of "FICO and discount".

Hey, great idea about googling for a coupon code. I found a 27% off and paid a total of $38 for a myFICO score.

Good news, it looks like I should be all right for a home purchase in the next few months:
transunion - 758
equifax - 743
experian - 768

It looks like my biggest "fault" is because my credit history is low (only have a car loan and a credit card). I'm 23 so that's pretty understandable.

**loanstar** · 12-08-2007, 12:42 PM

Originally posted by project15 View Post

If you've already ran a credit report in one year, what would be the cheapest way to obtain it again with actual numbers?

I ran it last January and everything seemed ok, I didn't opt in to get actual scores, just checked it out for any bad marks. I'm planning on buying a house soon and would like to run another credit check now to make sure nothing has changed in 11 months. Yes, I could wait another 2 months to run it again, but I'd rather have it now since I'd like to buy within 2 months.

I you haven't missed any payments in that time it should be the same if not better!
Experian do a 30 free trial, you could sign up to that, but constant checking might hamper you; it makes borrowers think you've tried to borrow somewhere else.

Checking credit score more than once per year