I just got an e-mail from Credit Sesame that my free monthly credit score is ready! As many of you know, I am a certified financial educator and one of the classes I teach most frequently is about improving your credit score. My favorite way to get your credit score 100% for free (no credit card required) is Credit Sesame! I personally use it every month.
It’s really easy, just enter your basic information at Credit Sesame. In about 3 minutes you’ll have your free Credit Score. You’ll actually be able to track your credit score for free every month. You see how you are progressing and it will help you catch any mistakes or errors. Plus monitoring your score helps you feel confident that your identity is safe! Many people have no idea they’ve been the victim of identity theft till they check their credit score!
Remember, your credit score is used by potential employers, insurance companies, banks and many others to make decisions about you, so it’s important to know where you stand! The average score is about 678. You can see what your score is HERE.
That’s actually my credit analysis above. Let us know how you did and if you have any questions after getting your score, just leave it in the comments. I’ll be happy to answer them! Good Luck! 🙂
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I would love some info on the best ways to raise my credit score
The two most important things are paying everything on time (35% of your score) and keeping your balances low (30% of your score).
So even if you pay on time if you are using a lot of your available credit or even more than about 1/4 – 1/3 of it, your score won’t be as good as it can be.
You go girl! It’s rare that I see a fellow 800+ credit score. It’s an awesome feeling going through life without the extra weight of debt on your shoulders!
Thanks Amy – You go too! 🙂 I am crazy when it comes to debt. I really hate it. I remember after graduating college feeling like how am I going to pay off these student loans?! I don’t ever want to feel that overwhelmed again!
Thats where I am right now 🙁 I just graduated two weeks ago with my MBA and have about 30K in debt. I was just re-doing my budget last night to pay as MUCH as I can to pay it off in the quickest way possible without causing to much imbalance in other areas, but its just like a little stab in the heart (lol). But anyways just gotta suck it up 🙂
I actually feel your pain! My hubby is in graduate school right now and we are seriously pinching pennies so he won’t have to take out any loans in the Fall. It’s not easy as you well know!
If you are committed to it (and it sounds like you totally are!) you’ll pay that down quickly – you’ll see. 🙂
So i have a credit score of 689, i really want to buy a house and read i need a score of 700689 at least, i am paying my 2 credit cards down to about 30% pof the limit but how long can it take for my credit to raise? What else can i do? Thanks
I mean 700:) oops
Lori – You are really pretty close! Paying down the debt to 30% or less is really the fastest thing you can do. Less than 20% is even better.
Make sure that even once you pay them off you don’t close them. Leave them open and just use them for a small amount once every couple of months. Maybe like a tank of gas or something you were going to buy anyway.
Make sure you don’t open or close anything – both actually will have a negative affect on your score. You are soooo close I think paying down those accounts will get you there! 🙂
How long will it take to see my score increase when I pay my credit card debt down? Thanks
It should increase as you go paying it down, just remember that your balances can be a couple of months behind. So the balance the credit bureau has as your current balance can sometimes be the balance of a couple of months ago, so there can be a bit of a lag but as you make significant payments, you should see gradual improvement monthly.
One last question (well maybe) should i pull my credit history with the 3difference agencies? And is that free? Or is or is credit sesame pretty much the same?
Thank you! Got my free score!
Is the Credit Sesame credit score a true FICO credit score. I once had a Discovery Card Credit Score product which I cost $7 per month. I applied to a new electric provider and I was turned down. My Discovery Card Credit Score was 768 (I retrospect, I now know that many providers of credit scores will sell you just about anything.) My true FICO Credit Score when I applied to the new electric provider was 689. ??????
The score is provided by Experian so scores provided with information from Transunion or Equifax can be different. If your score varies more than 50 or so points usually that means that there is some piece of information that is different across the reports. Like an account that isn’t showing up on all three for example.
ugh i signed up to do this n my hubby had a cow said u shouldnt do that stuff you dont know if its secure or not blah blah so i had to delete it man o man
Just wanted to know if you loose points for checking your score here and every month.
No you do not. You only lose points when you apply for new credit. So if you are looking at your own score you are totally fine! 🙂 Just don’t apply for any new credit.