So there you are expecting your credit score to show up as you pull your credit report from one of the big credit bureaus and … it isn’t there. You are probably annoyed that you took the time and perhaps spent money in the hope of finding your credit score on that credit report. It makes sense that the credit score should appear on your credit report, so why doesn’t it and what can you do about this?
Credit score background
The first thing to understand is that credit reports and credit scores are two totally different products.
The FICO score is a proprietary credit scoring system that was created back in the 1950s. The company that developed it – Fair, Isaac and Company – then sold the scoring system. At first, there were other scoring systems that competed with it.
However, once Equifax started using it as a general purpose credit score, it pretty much caught on as the standard.
In other words, the company that invented the FICO Score was so successful with it that the entire credit industry adopted it as a standard method of determining creditworthiness. It is a product the credit bureaus subscribe to in order to evaluate you, and it is a product you buy to see where you stand.
Credit report: What’s in it?
The credit report is just that – it lists your entire credit profile so that creditors can examine it and evaluate your creditworthiness, both independent of the FICO Score and in conjunction with it. You can order your credit score though the bureaus as well, and they also have their own scoring system which will mean little to you.
Credit score: It’s not free, mostly
Your FICO score is rarely offered for free. Those sources may offer you a free FICO score, but then you’ll be signed up for a monthly recurring charge in some kind of membership program involving credit, or credit monitoring, or as a value-add by using a certain credit card (like Discover, which offers a free score on your statement every month). These might be worth it, depending on various circumstances.
However, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers access to their credit report for free – one report from each of the three big credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, Transunion) once per year. This data is provided from a centralized source, http://1.usa.gov/1nbIDEH.
In addition, the FCRA entitles you to a free credit report if a company or creditor takes what’s called “adverse action” against you. This includes denying an application for credit. You may also get one if your report is inaccurate because of fraud.
You can dispute errors or you may have found a case of fraud. You want to do this not only so everything is correct, but because it will effect your FICO score.
Confused man image via Shutterstock
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