In yesterday’s article on checking your credit reports, I mentioned that it might be worth paying for your credit report to get your credit score. However, if you’re not too worried about an exact number and would like to have a general idea of your credit score, there is a way to calculate this for free.
Visit Bankrate’s FICO Score Estimator and answer ten questions, the calculator will then tell you what range your score falls in.
While you may have this information handy and could check your score at any time, I recommend ordering your free credit reports and once you receive them, enter the information into the calculator and write the score range on your report.
I found this calculator to be quite accurate. I have three different reports that I’ve paid for to get my credit score over the last five years. Two were from Equifax and one was from TransUnion. I answered the questions using the information in these reports and not only did the calculator get the range right, all three times the score on the reports came within 10 points of the middle of the calculated range for that report!
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Tom Drake is the owner and head writer of Canadian Finance Blog.
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Thanks for the estimator I tried it and it’s pretty accurate.
What a great tool! This will reduce the temptation to check my current score. I checked once when I had several debts and again after paying off all but one – now I’m wondering how much higher my score is. This puts my last known score very close to the top of the range so it may not have risen that much.
[...] The Canadian Finance Blog found a tool to calculate your credit score for free [...]
I tried the calculator today and it was quite a bit out. I understand the benefits of checking your credit score because fortunes could be spent on unsuccessful application fees and everytime you apply your credit score goes further down. Fortunately there are places were you can receive a free credit check. It may be a trial but you can unsubscribe after you sign up.
It would be nice if all bureaus, organisations and credit agencies used one pre-agreed ratings scale. That way everyone would know where they are. The way credit ratings are set up at the moment is just confusing for everyone… Actually, I find it very ironic, that in order to build a “credit”, one has to go in “debt” first and pay it. But that is way system is set up.
Finding the right website and place to get free credit reports and checks can help alot of people. Hopefully your resource can aid these people.
[...] or TransUnion provide them online. Be warned that sites will charge a fee for this, though you can calculate your credit score for [...]
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its not free, stop using that word!!!!
We talk about this quite a bit in our credit forum. You post is very insightful.
how does this calculator take into effect the score card aspect of the FICO model?
I checked once when I had several debts and again after paying off all but one – now I’m wondering how much higher my score is.
So you are saying that there is way to get your credit score for free, but you will get an exact number if you pay.
I found one more that is on freecreditscore.com, it also helps in calculating your credit score.