Is There a Free Lunch - or Free Fico Score?

Free credit reports abound online. But getting a free fico score? Not so easy.

While some online vendors offer a free fico score with a free credit report, most don't. You get a credit report from one bureau as an incentive to try a subscription credit monitoring service. These services cost $75 or more per year. If you decide to keep the service going after the free trial period of 30 days, you'll have access to your score, but usually from one bureau only.

A free fico score from one bureau is a good indicator of your overall credit health, but you can't be sure unless you see scores from all three bureaus. Even when you pay for a 3 in 1 merged credit report from a vendor, which has data from all three bureaus shown, you are usually given a credit score from just one bureau. Depending on the type of lender, any of the three Fico scores-or all three-may be used.

Myfico.com, a website from credit score developers Fair, Isaac & Co., claims to be the only provider of all three credit scores for consumers. You can also buy credit reports from all three bureaus at this site. Though the credit scores are not free, there is a free score estimator utility on this website. You answer a series of questions and the final result shows you a rough estimate of your credit score.

The estimate is probably only useful at a very birds-eye level. Even between bureaus, scores can vary by 50 or more points, and 3-5 points can kick you up or down the interest rate scale. A rough estimate won't serve a specific need. However, if you fall below the 600-point level on this psuedo free fico score, it probably would indicate that you should check further. Even with this rough estimate, you'll know if you're starting to hit the score level for bad credit loans.

Credit card offers reflect scores

Another way to keep loose tabs on your score for free is to check the interest rates listed in your credit card offers. Most consumers get several of these offers each week. Credit card companies buy mailing lists from the credit bureaus that meet certain score ranges. They segment their offers depending on scores; that's how you get one offer and the house next door gets another from the same company. If you start with offers of 15% interest rates or above, you know your score is low compared to the average. Over months' time, you can actually determine that your scores are rising when you see the interest rate offers falling.

All in all, there's no substitute for getting copies of all three bureaus' credit reports and all three scores once per year. With the new FACT legislation, you can get a free credit report without a credit card at each bureau once per year, then buy scores separately. If you buy the whole package, it will cost about $40. Either way, free or paid, it's the best method for optimizing scores, preventing fraud and keeping your credit report error-free.

Is there a truly free fico credit score? Maybe not, but think of it like dental work-it's cheaper to maintain your credit health than to repair it.