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How to Check Your Credit Score for Free! - YouTube
Channel: Clark Howard: Save More, Spend Less
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Your credit score is an important part
of your financial life, but did you know
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that you don't have to pay to get your
scores? I'm going to show you five ways
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to get your credit scores for free.
Before I do that let's talk about the
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difference between a FICO and a non FICO
credit score. A FICO score is what's used
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by most lenders to determine whether
you're a credit risk or not. Each of the
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three major credit bureaus: Equifax,
TransUnion and Experian have a FICO
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score for you based on your credit
history. Most of the time the scores from
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each bureau will be the same or very
close. The most popular non FICO score is
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the Vantage score. While many free
websites will show you a Vantage score
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it's likely not the number that a
creditor will use when they decide
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whether or not they will loan you money.
Both FICO and Vantage scores use a scale
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of 300 to 850 but each is calculated
differently so they may not come out to
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be the same number.
Knowing both your FICO and Vantage scores
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gives you a clearer picture of how
lenders view you and whether they may
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extend credit to you. The higher your
score the more creditworthy you look to
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creditors. Now that you know the
difference here are three free and
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convenient ways to get your FICO score
and two places to get your non FICO
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Vantage score. The first way to get your
FICO score is to use Discover Bank's
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Credit Scorecard. You can use the
service even if you don't bank with
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Discover, but you will need to sign up
for a free account. Just provide some
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information to verify your identity. Then
the FICO score based on your Experian
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credit report will be available to you
immediately. On your Discover Scorecard
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you'll also see: the total number of
accounts on your report, the length of your
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credit history, the number of credit
inquiries currently on your account, your
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revolving credit utilization and any
missed payments on your report. All of
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those factors contribute to the
calculation of your FICO score. One of
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the best things about this service,
besides being free, is that they don't
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pressure you to sign up for paid
products like some other free FICO
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score websites. A second way to
potentially get your free FICO score is
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through your credit card issuer. To see
if you have access to this perk, log in
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to your online account or call the
toll-free number on the back of your
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card.
Sometimes the score may even appear on
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your paper statement as well. The third way
you may be able to get a free FICO score
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is through your bank or credit union. As
with credit cards, you may find your
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score when you log into your account or
you can call your financial institution
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to see if it's available and if it is
they should be able to assist you in
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finding it. Now that we've covered our
recommended ways of getting your free
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FICO score let's talk about popular and
convenient ways to get a free non FICO
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score. Team Clark has two favorites when
it comes to getting your free
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Vantage score. The first is Credit Karma.
Signing up for Credit Karma works much
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like Discover Scorecard. You create a
free account and verify your identity to
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see your information. Credit Karma
gives you two scores: one based on your
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TransUnion report and one based on your
Equifax report. The two scores can be
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different based on when different
creditors report to the bureaus and when
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your score is updated. One of the big
reasons we recommend Credit Karma is
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because of their Credit Score Simulator.
It lets you see how your score would
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change if you took certain actions like:
getting a new loan, opening a new credit
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card, transferring balances to a new card,
closing your oldest credit card, getting
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a credit limit increase, increasing or
decreasing your balances, letting
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accounts go past due or having an account
sent to collections. Using the simulator
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can help you see how your actions affect
your score and help you plan your
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financial life. We'll link to our full
Credit Karma review in the description
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below if you want to learn more. The
second way to get your Vantage score is
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from Credit Sesame. You create an account
like you would for Credit Karma, but
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you'll only be able to get the score
based on your TransUnion report. This
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info is still valuable and your account
also lets you access credit monitoring
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and a debt analysis tool. Although
knowing your credit score is important,
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don't obsess over it! Maintaining good
money and credit habits will increase
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your score over time and help keep your
financial life healthy. Subscribe to our
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channel and watch some of our other
videos to learn about your money and
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credit. And find more money-saving
information at Clark.com.
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