How to Check Your Credit Score for Free (Without Hurting It)

Does Checking Your Own Credit Score Hurt It?

No. When you check your own score or report, it is recorded as a soft inquiry. Soft inquiries are visible only to you and have no effect on your score.

A hard inquiry happens when a lender checks your credit because you applied for a loan or card. Those can lower your score slightly and stay on your report. Looking at your own credit is never one of them.

Your Score and Your Report Are Not the Same Thing

• Credit report: the detailed history of your accounts, balances, payments and inquiries, kept by each bureau (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion).
• Credit score: a number calculated from that report.

You need both. The report shows why your score is what it is, and it is where errors hide.

Free Ways to Check

1. AnnualCreditReport.com (your reports)

This is the only site authorized by federal law to give you free credit reports. The three bureaus now offer free weekly reports, and this program is permanent. Important: these are reports, not scores. Be careful with look-alike sites that charge you.

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2. WalletHub (your score)

WalletHub offers a free VantageScore 3.0 score based on your TransUnion credit report, plus free credit reports and credit monitoring. Check what the free plan currently includes on WalletHub's site. It is a good way to watch your progress without paying.

3. Your bank or credit card app

Many issuers show a free score inside their app. Check which scoring model they use, because some show VantageScore and others show FICO.

Why Your Free Score May Not Match Your Lender's

There are many scoring models. Most free tools show VantageScore. Many lenders use FICO, and mortgage lenders have traditionally used specific FICO versions. Your numbers can differ by a few points, or more, depending on the model and the bureau.

Treat a free score as a reliable direction: is it going up or down, and why. It is not the exact number a lender will see. Our article on FICO 8 vs FICO 10T explains why the model matters.

When Is Paid Monitoring Worth It?

Most people don't need it just to see their score. Paid services make sense if you want scores and reports from all three bureaus in one place, ongoing alerts, or extra identity protection.

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One paid option you can compare is SmartCredit. With any paid service, read the terms before entering a card, check the current price, and note the date any trial would renew so you can cancel on time if you don't want to continue.

If identity protection is your main goal, WalletHub Premium is a paid option that adds identity theft insurance, dark web monitoring and a TransUnion credit lock. Coverage terms, features and price can change, so review the current details and renewal terms before you decide.

What to Do After You See Your Score

1. Read your reports for errors. Wrong balances, accounts that aren't yours, or late payments reported by mistake can hurt your score. You can dispute errors for free.
2. Look at your utilization. Using a high share of your credit limits is one of the quickest things to improve.
3. Check for on-time payments. Payment history carries the most weight.
4. Estimate your next move with our free Dual Score Estimator.