Has anyone used quizzle for free credit score and report? Are there any catches?

February 2, 2011 1:57 PM

Has anyone used quizzle for free credit score and report? Are there any catches?

My wife would like to get her first credit report from annualcreditreport.com for free but we just learned that it doesn't include your credit score. There is a website called as quizzle which offers free credit score as well as report. A quick web search didn't reveal anything fishy. Still thought better ask here if anyone has used this website and has any good/bad experience.

Many thanks in advance.

posted by zaxour to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Quizzle won't do any damage, but the information they give you is not your FICO score. There are a number of groups like this, including credit.com and others, which help you understand your report and give you a score - yet the score is proprietary based off their own information and models. I suspect that if your wants to get "her score" she's referring to her FICO. How useful that score is, well, that's a separate question.
posted by allen.spaulding at 2:19 PM on February 2, 2011

I just checked the score they gave me (I do these kinds of things for a living these days) and the score is way off - almost 100 points off the average scores I get from the bureaus themselves. Quizzle may be a good tool for some and may help your wife understand her own credit situation. I just wouldn't treat their scores as interchangeable with your FICO or bureau-generated scores
posted by allen.spaulding at 2:22 PM on February 2, 2011

Not directly an answer, but useful for anyone interested in this question: freecreditrport.com is only a hairsbreadth short of being an outright scam. I try to be vigilant about these things, and somehow got signed up for a subscription service that billed me $15 at apparently random intervals. When I called (you have to call) to cancel they tried to hustle me through with signing me up for two years of it at half price and after I called them out on that, they used even more obtuse language to try and trick me into buying some sort of one time deal. It was all very slick as I nearly failed the test going in prepared for a con. Who knows how many old ladies and college freshmen are fueling their coffers.

What's more, I couldn't tell which of the totally unrelated business names was connected to them to file a BBB report. Ultra shady.
posted by cmoj at 2:23 PM on February 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Instead of taking a chance on this, either pay the one-time fee on annualcreditreport.com to get your score, or check through your bank. I bank with USAA and they have a program with Experian. I pay $15/month and in return I get all kinds of awesome shit including alerts when there are hard inquiries and an unlimited amount of credit score checks.

There is no reason to go through another website, do it through one of the three credit bureaus. It might be more expensive, but I certainly trust them much more.
posted by InsanePenguin at 2:45 PM on February 2, 2011

I got 2 of my credit scores from www.myFico.com and there was nothing shady about the transaction.

Before you order your credit score, it's best to figure out what you need it for. There's no one "credit score" - each of the 3 credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Transunion, Experian) uses a different score based on different factors (mine varies by 50 points!) and some banks just calculate their own score based on your credit report.
posted by muddgirl at 2:46 PM on February 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, anyone offering your credit score for free will want to enroll you in some monthly "Credit Watch" program, but will let you cancel your subscription after you see your score. If you don't want to use a Credit Watch program, then make sure you cancel your subscription ASAP or you will be billed.
posted by muddgirl at 2:47 PM on February 2, 2011

Credit Karma www.creditkarma.com is a more powerful competitor to Quizzle. They also offer targeted deals, which support the service and keep it free (no opt out junk). CK also gives you the new VantageScore.
posted by muscat at 4:41 PM on February 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

I use Credit Karma and I have never been charged for anything. It's very clear what's a "buy this from a sponsor" link and what's a "view this part of your report here" link.
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:55 PM on February 2, 2011