I saw a commercial last night that annoyed me. It was from one of those free credit report websites and it featured 350 different people saying “free, free! Hey did we mention free?” I don’t know about you but when somebody flashes “free” in my face repeatedly, one thing I am certain of is that it’s not free.
So what is the deal with these offers? Are they free? Why do you care? Â What is the real cost?
Well ladies and gentlemen tell your friends, tell your sister, tell your mom and tell your parole officer because I’m going to give you the scoop today and it is truly going to be free.
Can you honestly get a free credit report? Yes you can but don’t use any offer except the one the US Government makes the 3 major credit bureaus provide (see the link at the bottom for this). This is a great and you should take advantage of it to ensure there isn’t anything on your report which is incorrect and could potentially harm you. Here’s the thing though, credit reports do not contain your credit score and credit scores determine whether or not you get approved for things such as loans and credit cards. So while you can in fact get a free credit report, you can’t actually get your credit score for free except as I describe below.
Companies that offer you free reports an scores offer you a free trial of their monitoring services which you can cancel in usually 7 or 30 days. This means you get the first report and current scores for free along with suggestions for improvement and after the trial period you start getting billed for the service.So as long as you are willing to sign up and then cancel right after you get your information you can get it for free. Below I provided a list of the top offers for this. If you really wanted to work for it you could sing up with one of them each month then cancel and in effect get several months of monitoring for free!
Before you think I’m telling you to scam these services I should add that depending on where you are financially this might actually be valuable. I personally use such a service. I pay $9.99 per month to be able to pull my current score and report anytime I want. For me it’s worth it and I’ll tell you why.
About a year ago I paid off a credit card but about $2 accrued interest showed up the next month I didn’t notice.The company never told me but they were more than happy to charge me a $30 late fee twice and add a derogatory 30 day late comment on my credit report.
My credit monitoring service sent me an alert and I was able to immediately pay them the $62 I now owed. Had I not received that notification I would have gone over 90 days late and that would have seriously damaged my credit. So for me I view the $9.99 I pay each month as credit score insurance. Plus I get to check my score often and that makes it fun and rewarding to watch rise as I take steps to improve it.
Whether you decide to actually pay for credit monitoring or just take the trial I strongly suggest you at least take advantage of one of these trials. It’s pretty simple, sign up for the trial, get your reports and score then cancel your account withing the trial period specified. Â There’s your “free credit report and score” the cost was a little work on your end to cancel but that’s a small price to pay.
If you are looking for a free credit score and report you are in luck. StudentPlatinum has teamed up with FreeCreditReport.com (Yes, the company with the “amazing” commercials) to provide you with this free offer.
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