Credit score - free - any catches?

It's probably the same as downloading a free ebook. The cost is the personal information you give them. In this case it's your identifying & contact information, as well as possibly a drivers license number.

A lot of identity theft damage could be done with this info, although I'm not aware of any scams of this nature at this point.

A number of lenders offer brokers access to obtain credit reports for free for clients. These reports don't leave a footprint on your record (unlike a loan application would).

 

One is a credit score or number only.
And often the credit score is propriety? to the company - ie their formula.

The other is a credit report.


They require you to update name address other details so their info they sell about you is more up to date.

 

I used this just to check. I just made sure my credit file was not hit

Seemed ok, I got similar score to what I expected

 

There are three sites that I know of, one for each of the major credit reporting agencies.
Credit Savvy - Free credit score and credit report summary
gives a credit score in the range 0-1000
Used to be run by Experian, but now their website says "we've teamed up with experian" and that they are now a subsidiary of CBA.
This is (in my opinion) the most useful, as it has a "Credit Report Summary" that lists every item that they have on your credit file. It lists all my loans and credit cards, as well as a green tick for each month showing that my repayments are up to date. I find it reassuring that it shows all my accounts and nothing else, so no signs of identify fraud.

Get your FREE credit score now
gives a credit score in the range 0-1200
Is Equifax/Veda.

Illion (was Dun & Bradstreet) also have one, but it has changed significantly since I last looked at it.
Home - illion

Once you use them, they give you your credit score amongst a heap of targeted ads (in my case, credit cards, but if you had a lower score I'm sure they would be trying to flog credit repair or similar) so I figured that this was what was paying for the site. The actual scores themselves are probably just spat out of some computer algorithm so it wouldn't cost much to run for a credit (I've never had to wait the 10 days that Wylie mentions in her first post).

I figured that the companies were major enough (and had my info anyway) that the risk of identity theft was fairly low.

 

Giving your email address and being spammed

 

I use 'getcreditscore' and have never once received spam emails, or any other communications from them.
They offer products within the portal like credit cards, other loans etc which appear to be affiliate type links. This would be how they make money.
Other than that, there's no other advertising etc that would annoy.

 

just be aware with credit simple, a lot of people have huge jumps up and down that make no sense

my score is about 750-800 for all the other providers and about 6 months ago, with credit simple it dropped to 515 without explanation and has stayed there since,

other people reported huge drops at the time too

Ditto, I get a once a month "here is your monthly score update" email, but im sure it can be turned off

 

I use Credit Simple and Clear Score which both show your actual credit report and credit score for free and I've never had any issues with them. Never had an issue with Get Credit Score either but it only shows your score.

They all simply provide a free product in exchange for ads for financial offers so it's not a hard business model to understand. I'm not sure why people seem to think that they are scammers.