Sooner or later most of us will need to find out our credit score. This can be a perilous journey if you don't know what you are doing! If you've looked online you will already have seen a number of websites offering free credit reports.
Finding your credit score for free by using one of these websites isn't as straightforward as it seems though. There are some things you need to be aware of because a lot of the time you will end up being billed — even when you've been promised a free report.
The majority of free credit report websites will ask you for a one dollar deposit or a similar nominal sized fee. Many times this will only be presented to you after you have spent a fair amount of time filling out filling out all the required online forms.
Most people who have already gone through the trouble of filling out all the required forms will quite readily pull out the credit card and pay the nominal one dollar fee. I mean, who would want to spend another half hour filling out all those forms again just for the sake of not spending a buck!
This is their strategy though, and it works. This is why so many people end up parting with their credit card details. It's only a dollar anyway, right?
Well, actually no, in most cases it isn't!
Long after you have forgotten about the credit score report you got for a buck, you will be billed again. Sometimes if you don't spot that any money has been deducted from your credit card you will be billed yet again! Believe it or not, lots of people don't bother to look through their credit card statement which means payments aren't spotted for quite some time.
There are some credit score websites that won't even ask you for a dollar. Instead they'll just give you some reason why they need your personal credit card details. The result will be the same though. You will be billed at some point in the future.
Other credit report websites are more up front with their charges and will tell you that you will be billed in the future unless you cancel your subscription. This is where you will find that it is almost impossible to cancel without spending hours on the phone!
So how do you avoid all these pitfalls?
Well, the best way to avoid any problems is to do some proper research before you start filling out any forms. If you do an internet search for “what's my credit score”, “what's my credit score free”, “free credit score report” or something similar you will find many different websites offering free credit reports.
The next step is to make a note of all the website names offering free reports.
Now it's time for another search this time we want to search for something like “is xyz a scam?” or “is xyz really free?” replacing xyz with the name of the website.
The great thing about the Internet is that when people get scammed they are quick to share their experiences! If the website you are searching about is a scam site there will be people letting you know!
Do your research and look for lots of reviews and opinions before choosing a credit score website and you will end up saving yourself a lot of money in the long run! Remember nothing is free on the Internet, there will always be a catch so be aware especially if you find yourself sat in front of your computer with your credit card in your hand!
You can get lots more advice concerning credit reports at WhatsMyCreditScoreFree.com.
(Note from John Wedding: This was written by a guest author. Good advice in recommending how to investigate whether a site in general has a good reputation. Also, just as a side note, the official once-a-year free credit report site — the one that provides the government-mandated yearly free report from the three major credit bureaus — is AnnualCreditReport.com. The credit bureaus only are required to give your credit history for free. They typically don't include the scores for free.)
