In the United States, everyone is entitled to a free copy of their credit reports from the three major credit bureaus at least once a year for free. Some states, such as Massachusetts, allow residents to check their report as often as they want for free. Your credit report can be found at the official website: http://www.annualcreditreport.com/.
After entering the required information, you theoretically should be able to access copies of your report from Transunion, Equifax, and Experian. During this process, some of the bureaus try to get you to accidentally sign up for a credit monitoring service, so read each page carefully. Also, if you decide not to use the paid service, the Transunion site often has problems and will tell you to call a 1-800 number. You may also need to call the 1-800 number if you cannot remember any of the answers to the security questions, or if you have previously applied a fraud alert to your identity.
Make sure you do not accidentally sign up for the credit monitoring service over the phone, unless you intend to! I do not recommend it, though. When you call the number, and give them your info, Transunion will send you a printed copy of your report. In addition, Experian will also mail you a print copy of your report without asking you if you want this, so you may want to make sure to click the “mask social security” box at the beginning of the process.
To get your credit score, you can let the bureaus’ sites sign you up for the credit monitoring service, which will give you access to your credit score. However, the monitoring services will charge your credit card automatically, usually around $9.95 a month. These companies are aware that people will sign up for the monitoring service, just to get their score and immediately cancel, and so usually there is a waiting period between the time you open the account and are allowed to close it. They hope that this will cause you to forget to cancel it, so that they can charge you.
I do not recommend trying to get your score this way, these companies can be really sneaky. You can also try to buy some real estate, the bank will check your credit score in order to approve your loan application, and it is possible that they will tell you. Car dealerships may or may not tell you. Carmax, for example, will not tell you your score, and the agents claim that they have no access to it.
You cannot determine your own credit score from the information on your credit report, since the formulas used are a FICO secret, but there is a calculator available to estimate your score: It will help give you an idea of your score in a few minutes for free. Or you can contact your representatives and demand more rights for consumers. CLICK BELOW FOR QUIZ
QUIZ
1) Do You know the interest rate on your credit cards?
2) Do you know your credit capacity?
3) Do you know your credit score?
4) Do you have a monthly budget?
5) Do you have an emergency fund set aside?
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/fico/calc.asp
If you answered yes then you are on you’re way to financial control. If you answered no then explore our site for more answers and solutions