Start by doing a credit checkup — you can monitor your credit yourself by requesting a free report once a year from each of the credit bureaus through www.annualcreditreport.com but the free report won’t include your credit score, you’ll pay about $8 to get the credit bureau’s proprietary number.

The majority of lenders (especially mortgage lenders) use FICO Scores, however, so if you’re in the market for a loan, that is the one you want. At www.myfico.com, you can get your credit report and a FICO Score from Equifax or TransUnion (but not Experian) for $20 each.

Remember, free doesn’t always mean free — if you are just looking for a ballpark estimate of how you’re doing, go to www.credit.com and you’ll get free estimates of your FICO Score and VantageScore along with Experian’s own PLUS score.

Sites such as www.freecreditscore.com and www.creditreport.com will give you a free PLUS Score, but only if you sign up for a free trial subscription to a credit-monitoring service — if you don’t cancel in seven days the service costs $15 to $20 a month. Likewise, at MyFICO.com you can get your FICO Score free, but only if you accept a trial subscription to the company’s Score Watch system.

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Tags: Credit Bureau, Credit Report, FICO Score, Free FICO Score, Monitor Your Credit, MyFICO, PLUS Score, Proprietary Number, Score Watch, VantageScore

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