A credit bureau gathers information about how consumers use credit. In other words, they collect information from as many consumer financial transactions or inquiries as they can. They then sell access to that combined information to anyone who has a legally-recognized reason (permissible purpose).

There are a wide variety of myths floating around about what you should and shouldn’t do to improve your credit reports and credit scores.

Wells Fargo bank announced Wednesday it will be offering free credit scores and credit reports to all of its customers through November 16, 2014 — you can get these scores by obtaining a personal access code from a Wells Fargo branch. The bank also has provided some credit management tips on its website as part of the promotion. Wells Fargo also offered free credit reports and credit scores in 2013 and 2012.

So, you can get your TransUnion Credit Score for free? You can get absolutely free credit monitoring? These are services that people pay good money for and Credit Karma, a company that isn’t affiliated with any of the credit bureaus, is giving it away for free. Does this sound too good to be true or is Credit Karma a scam?