What is my fico score?

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January 14th, 2009 - Posted by Erik

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.

Q: What is my fico score?

A: We don't keep track of your FICO score, but we can tell you how to get it. (If you're looking for the definition of a FICO score, check out our "What is a credit score?" FAQ.) Typically, you must pay to get your FICO score (the FICO score is the most widely used type of credit score), but you can get it for free when you sign up for a 30-day free trial of Equifax's credit monitoring service. You get your Equifax FICO score as well as all three bureaus' credit reports plus 3-bureau credit monitoring and some other goodies. It's a great service so you may want to keep it and pay the $14.95 per month, but if not you can just cancel during the trial period and you'll have received your FICO score and 3 credit reports for free.

If you don't want to sign up for a service or want to purchase all three of your FICO scores, you can buy FICO Credit Complete for $47.85. This includes not just all three FICO scores, but also all three credit reports, an explanation of each credit score, and the FICO Simulator, which estimates what your FICO score would be if you took different actions such as paying down credit card debt.

If you only want to buy one credit score, you can get FICO Standard instead for $15.95. You can pick the bureau you want the score and report from and get all the other features of FICO Credit Complete, but just for the one bureau. Remember, though, you would get all this for free with the free trial of Equifax's credit monitoring service.