Free Annual Credit from Experian

[ID Victim]

What is the name of your state? AZ

Hello, I just went to annualcreditreport.com to run my free credit history. I chose Experian this time. But when I run the history, the website only shows what all accounts I have, but doesn't actually show my credit score.

Their website constantly pushes me to buy their products. I have used all 3 monitoring companies before, and each time I have ended up paying 9-10 bucks to get detailed score. But this time, I am not interested in buying anything.
SO, as a part of free annual credit, what all are you supposed to get from these agencies?

Is this the way it is supposed to work? From the report I see, I don't see any valuable information, leave alone score. Can someone familiar with experian website please help on how to get my score - for free?

 

[fairisfair]

you get an annual credit report for free. Not a credit score.

This is a legal advice site.

If you want shopping tips, try consumer reports.

 

[ID Victim]

If you want shopping tips, try consumer reports.

Thanks. I am not looking for a shopping site. My question, which I guess I didn't make clear in my first post, was what all are we entitled to know as a part of free annual credit report from federal govt. I am not sure if they give me just my score or just the account I opened and closed. And, if we were supposed to know our credit score, I wanted help in trying to navigate experian website to figure my score out. That's pretty much.

 

[AnotherMoron]

Thanks. I am not looking for a shopping site. My question, which I guess I didn't make clear in my first post, was what all are we entitled to know as a part of free annual credit report from federal govt. I am not sure if they give me just my score or just the account I opened and closed. And, if we were supposed to know our credit score, I wanted help in trying to navigate experian website to figure my score out. That's pretty much.

FICO, the folks who score you, are a separate entity from the CRA's. You get your credit report, which does most certainly have valuable information on it. You do not get your credit score, that is always a separate charge unless you have a credit card account, as we do through our bank, that gives you your score free on a monthly basis.

All you are entitled to is a copy of your credit report from all 3 bureaus, that's it.

fairisfair put it much more succinctly than I did, but since you didn't read it/understand it, I elaborated.

 

[ShyCat]

You are entitled to a free credit REPORT. Credit SCORES are not free.

 

[Ladynred]

what all are we entitled to know as a part of free annual credit report

Exactly what it says - 1 free credit report per year from EACH of the 3 credit bureaus. That's it, nothing more. If you think a credit report contains no important details, then you probably need to read up on each CRA's web site just exactly what all those entries on your report mean.

Only 1 of the CRA's actually gives you a true FICO score, the rest give you what we call FAKO scores. The only place to get your true FICO scores is FICO itself, and it WILL cost you, scores were never part of the FACT Act that gave us all free annual reports.

 

[ecmst12]

If you want your score, it doesn't cost that much, I paid like $5.99 to get my score from transunion a couple of years ago. But normally I don't bother, I just read the positive and negative accounts listed there.

 

[ID Victim]

Thanks for your replies, folks. Appreciate it very much.
So, If I am buying a home, do they look at your credit score only, or credit history only, or both? If they see both, shouldn't both the history and score be made available for free?

Just curious, as I am not a lawyer.

 

[ecmst12]

They look at both, of course. The items on your credit report are available for free as a consumer protection so that everyone is able to see what's there and dispute inaccurate items. Your credit score is made up by FICO through some mysterious secret formula and can't be disputed. It is not a part of the law that makes your credit report available for free once per year.

 

[Ladynred]

You also must understand that the credit report that a mortgage broker or bank will get is NOT the exact same report that YOU will get when you pull your own reports. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that, it's a product that the CRA's sell to mortgage lenders, and you're lucky if you are even allowed to SEE that 'special' report.

Getting your 3 scores from myfico.com will cost you $15.95.