How Do I Obtain a Free FICO Score Online?

Reader Question: I want to obtain my free FICO score online, but every website that offers it asks me to sign up for some kind of monthly service (which is not free). Is there any way to obtain a free credit score online ... without having to sign up for something?

You've hit upon something that confuses a lot of people, judging by the numerous emails we receive. This short answer, unfortunately, is that I have not yet found a source where you can obtain your FICO credit score for free.

Sure, there are plenty of websites that offer "free credit scores" from all three reporting agencies. But below such an offer, you will usually find an asterisk with a disclaimer that says something like this: "When you sign up for Credit Watch Supreme." (I made up that product name by the way, lest I infringe upon somebody's trademark.)

I research these companies, services and websites on a regular basis, but I have never found a website where you could obtain a free FICO score with no strings attached. In most cases, you either have to (A) sign up for some kind of credit monitoring service or (B) pay a small fee for the score.

Different Rules for Credit Reports and Scores

It's also important to understand the difference between your three credit reports and the scores associated with those reports. They are two separate things, and the rules that cover them are also different. For example, you are entitled by law to obtain one free credit report from all three of the reporting agencies that maintain them. You can do this through the AnnualCreditReport.com, which is the only website of its kind that's regulated by the FTC.

However, this free entitlement does not include your actual scores -- just the reports. Regarding your credit scores, the Fair Credit Reporting Act says the following: An agency "may charge a fair and reasonable fee, as determined by the Commission, for providing the information required under this subsection."

Where to Obtain Your FICO Score

So now you know how the "free" side of things really works, what next? Where is the best place to go to obtain a free FICO score online? Well, one of the best places to is the MyFICO.com website. As I mentioned earlier, this is the site owned by the company that created this FICO scoring model. At the time of this article, they were offering all three scores (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) for a one-time purchase price of $47.⁸⁵. They also offered individual scores (from just one of the agencies) for $15.⁹⁵. Again, these prices were sampled at the time this article was published (January 2009), so they are obviously subject to change.

But that's not the only place you can get your scores. If you would like to obtain a free FICO score in conjunction with identity theft protection, credit monitoring or a related service, I would recommend using a website like Credit.com. Check out the credit tools page for more information on these and other products.

Summary and Conclusion

I know we've covered a lot in this lesson. So let's review some of the most important points we have discussed so far:

• By law, you are entitled to one free credit report per year, from all three of the reporting agencies who maintain.
• Despite the previous point mentioned above, there is no law that entitles you to a free FICO credit score.
• Some websites offer the free credit scores to entice you into signing up for some kind of monthly monitoring service. So there are "strings" attached in these scenarios.
• If you purchase your FICO score separately (without signing up for a special offer that includes a monthly service), you can expect to pay anywhere from $15 to $50.
• You can find some of the package deals mentioned in this article on the tools page of our blog.

I hope this answers your question and eliminates any confusion you had. If you have any other questions on how to obtain consumer information online, just let us know.