The Best Scores in Life Are Free: How to Get a Free Credit Score

By Dawn Handschuh, Personal Finance Writer   

As an informed consumer, you probably know that you're entitled to one free credit report a year from each of the three credit-reporting bureaus. Credit scores, and the credit reports they're based on, play a critical role in consumers' ability to obtain competitive rates on everything from mortgages to car loans and credit cards.

Why, then, aren't credit scores readily accessible to consumers free of charge? If consumers want to responsibly manage their credit, then shouldn't they be able to see what their creditors see, and how creditors rate them as borrowers?

These are some of the questions Congress is considering. Legislators began investigating whether the free access that consumers now have to their credit reports should be legally mandated to include credit scores. The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held hearings in August 2008.

Right now, if consumers want access to their credit score, they must fork over between $6 and $16 to buy their score, depending on where they purchase it.

The exception to that is credit card lender Washington Mutual. WaMu customers who establish an online account enjoy free, monthly access to their FICO score when they access their monthly statements.

In addition to aiding consumers who wish to monitor or improve their credit, access to both credit reports and credit scores can also prove useful in detecting early signs of identity theft.