If You Want Your FICO Score, Be Prepared To Pay For It

There are lots of commercial Internet sites offering a "free" credit report, sometimes confusing consumers who know that the law allows them access to their credit reports, at no charge, once a year.

But the truly free credit reports are only available at one site - annualcreditreport.com. How do you know the site is truly free? It's the only one that won't ask for your credit card number.

Other sites offering "free" credit reports take your credit card information because, to get the "free" credit report, consumers must enroll in a credit monitoring service for about $15 a month. They are told they won't be charged if they cancel the program within a set time, but consumers have complained that it is sometimes hard to cancel.

Unless you actually want to pay $15 a month for a credit monitoring service, you should probably only use www.annualcreditreport.com to get your credit report.

No free FICO score

But what about your FICO score? Is there any way to get that for free? Unfortunately, the law does not provide for a free annual FICO score, just your credit reports from the three credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and Trans Union.

But your credit score is very useful information to have, so it might be worth paying for it. Banks and credit card companies rely on that score when deciding what interest rate to offer you, so knowing where you stand is important.

While a number of sites may offer a "free" FICO score, rest assured it is the same kind of arrangement as the "free" credit reports. You will have to enroll in some kind of program in order to get the score. You'll have a short period of time to cancel without being charged, but you shouldn't count on that happening.

MyFICO.com

A good place to obtain your credit score is at www.myfico.com, the site operated by Fair Isaac, the company that came up with the FICO score in the first place. While the site does offer a "free" FICO score, it requires you to sign up for a service and go through the whole cancellation drill.

Since a FICO score is valuable information to have, maybe it's worth paying for. One time access to your FICO score, as well as your credit report, is $19.95. But it's one transaction with nothing to cancel.

If you want to try for the "free" FICO score, you can enroll in the 10-day free trial of ScoreWatch, MyFICO.com's service that costs $14.95 a month. Here are the terms of the 10-day free trial, as outlined on the MyFICO website:

"You will not be billed unless you decide to keep Score Watch(r) beyond your 10-day free trial period.  Three days before your trial expires, we will contact you by email to notify you of the upcoming conversion of your trial to a monthly subscription," the company says. " Your credit card information will only be used if you do not cancel prior to the end of your free trial - you can cancel at any time during your 10-day free trial."

There is one way to get your FICO score for free. If you have applied for a mortgage, the loan company is required by law to reveal your credit score.