Free Credit Score Trials

From the Editor: If you are interested in getting a full picture of your credit situation, we recommend utilizing a company that provides access to all three of your credit scores. While you can access all three of your credit reports at no charge and with no subscription at AnnualCreditReport.com , this site does not provide free access to credit scores. Currently, there are only a limited number of companies that provide access to all three of your credit scores with free trials. Most companies only give you access to one of your scores, then charge an extra fee to view all credit scores.

Here are our recommendations:

  1. IDENTITY GUARD®: This service currently offers free, 30 day access to all three of your credit scores from Experian, Transunion & Equifax. Additionally, this site has an excellent credit analyzer tool that allows you to project what your credit score will be under different circumstances. For example, you could find out how a balance transfer will affect your credit score or discover ways to improve your credit score so you can get approved for a credit card that offers a 0% rate on balance transfers. (Note: When tests were conducted on various credit report services, IDENTITY GUARD® ranked best in ease of use as well as customer support.)
  2. Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring: If you haven’t already received a free Equifax credit score, this service is a very good option, as it offers access to you Equifax score free for 7 days. Additionally, this site also offers credit analyzing tools. If you continue your membership past 7 days, the monthly fee is $14.95.
  3. Privacy Matters 1-2-3: This service offers a 7 day free trial that includes access to all three of your credit scores. Additionally, this site offers tools to analyze the effects of balance transfers on credit scores. A drawback to this service, aside from the fact it is only a 7 day trial, is the cancellation process. When you sign up, you are enrolled and charged $1 for a related service, which you must cancel separately. Unless you’ve already used the IDENTITY GUARD service, this is not the best option.
  4. www.annualcreditreport.com: Once a year, every US citizen can obtain all three of their credit reports at no cost with no subscription fees at www.annualcreditreport.com. Unfortunately, at www.annualcreditreport.com you cannot access your most important data: credit scores. Ultimately, this is a useful service if you want to check up on your account activity, but the fact that this service gives no insight into your credit scores makes it much less useful than the free trial offers.

For more information on how balance transfers affect credit scores, please see the article on this subject here.

For more information and to apply online for a balance transfer credit card, please see the 0% APR balance transfers section of this website.