Check your Credit Score and Report for Free

Getting your credit score, and your credit report, is much easier for Canadians than it has ever been before.

There are two primary credit bureaus in Canada: Equifax and TransUnion. Canadian legislation requires that they provide you, for free but only at your request, with a credit report once a year. Neither are required to provide you with your credit score. Both will do so, but only if you want to pay them to see it!

What’s a credit report?

Your credit report is simply a snapshot of your credit file, which is created when you borrow money or apply for credit. Credit card and loan companies you deal with will regularly update and send financial information related to your transactions to the credit bureaus. Your credit report, which is ongoing and evergreen, is is one of the main tools a lender uses when deciding whether or not to give you credit.

What’s a credit score?

Your credit score is a credit bureau’s or lender’s judgment about your overall financial health at a given point in time. It also represents to them the relative risk of lending to you, compared with other consumers.

Equifax and TransUnion use a scale from 300 to 900. An excellent credit score is anything in the high 700s or above. The higher your score, the lower the risk for the lender. They can use this in determining whether to lend to you or not, how much they want to lend to you, and at what rate.

Why should I care?

Establishing good credit is very important – vital, actually – if you want to apply and get approved for a loan or a credit card. If you know or suspect your previous credit history is not-so-great, you’ll want to check if things have improved. In addition to knowing your credit score, it’s a great idea to look at your actual credit report to see the status and specific details concerning your various accounts. Note that if you see any errors in the report, you’ll need to contact the relevant credit bureau directly to provide them with the information they need to correct it.

OK, I want to see these! How can I get them for free?

I thought you’d never ask.

As mentioned earlier, you can contact each of the credit bureaus directly once a year to get your free credit report, which they will send to you by slow, old-fashioned snail-mail. If you go online, they will also offer you a service (for $$$ of course) if you want to receive your report, and your credit score, instantly. Isn’t that nice of them?

Well, wait a minute. There are now numerous ways you can quickly get your credit report and score absolutely free. Yes, you heard that right. As Jed Clampett would muse, ‘the dickens you say!’

Here are a number of ways you can do it. Note that all of these are considered ‘soft hits’ on your credit file (rather than a ‘hard hit’ a lender might do if you were actually applying for credit). There’s no negative impact to you of viewing your credit info through any of these services.

The Chartered Banks

Do you do online banking through the Royal Bank (RBC) or ScotiaBank, or use the CIBC mobile app? If so, good for you! You can access your credit score for free right through their sites!

For RBC and ScotiaBank, credit scores are provided through TransUnion’s CreditView service. CIBC on the other hand has partnered with a third party provider, Borrowell, to provide clients credit scores through Equifax.

Third Party Services

OK, so your bank doesn’t offer you this service yet? It’s a competitive industry, so don’t worry, they will – just give them time. In the meantime, try these others:

Credit Karma – If you sign up with Credit Karma, they will provide you with your TransUnion credit report and score for free, and can also provide you with periodic updates / monitoring (also for free).

Borrowell – Borrowell will provide you, for free, with your Equifax credit score as well as ongoing credit monitoring. They do not currently provide you with your actual credit report.

MOGO – MOGO will provide you, yep for free, with your Equifax credit score and monthly updates. They do not currently provide you with your actual credit report. You can also buy and sell Bitcoin through MOGO…which I do NOT recommend. Cyrpto-currency ‘investing’ may be the subject of a future blog post.

Ratehub – Ratehub will provide you with your Equifax credit score for free. They do not currently provide you with your actual credit report.

What’s the Catch?

Well you knew it was coming. For the third party services, while the information they’re giving you is absolutely free, they’re looking to develop a business relationship with you. They might offer you personal loans, or present you with credit card offers. These might be their own products, or products that they offer through partners and affiliates. In any case, it’s not a big deal. There is really no pressure to use their supplementary services, and I’ve found they won’t overly bombard you or your email in-basket. Usually you’ll get one email a month with your credit update, and any offers they might wish you to consider would likely be part of that.

Pretty cool, eh? So go ahead. If your bank currently offers this through your online banking, that’s the best place to start. And if you need your credit report or are looking for free ongoing credit monitoring or montly updates, you can give one of the third-party services a try.

Let me know how it works out! Leave your experiences and your tips in the comments section.

Armchair

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating an All-Weather Portfolio - The Comfy Armchair

Image
Markets are volatile. Not that they ‘can be’ volatile, they  are  volatile. Sometimes, like we saw with the crisis of COVID19 and the resulting financial markets’ response to massive injections of income supports and business bailouts from world governments, they can be terrifying for the average long-term investor. Prior to COVID19, economies and markets were already teetering on the edge of  recession . The only questions seemed to be ‘when’ and ‘how bad’. Frankly, although most analysts and commentators are saying a recession (and maybe a….ummm…. depression ) is now essentially inevitable, nobody has the proverbial ‘crystal ball’ to know for sure what the outcome of all this will be. Your post-COVID19 portfolio may already be down anywhere between 15 and 30% depending on its asset allocations, current events, or the time-of-day. Painful to say the least. Most advisors will tell their clients to stay the course, and historically, that has always been good advice. Losses are only real
Read more

When should I take the CPP?

A common question of retirees and soon-to-be retirees is when to elect to take start payments from the   Canada Pension Plan (CPP).   The traditional or ‘expected’ time to begin to receive a CPP retirement pension is the month after your 65th birthday. However, in accordance with changes that have been in place for the last few years, you can now take your CPP as early as age 60, or defer it as long as age 70. If you elect to take your CPP early, the downside is you will receive less. The upside is that you will receive your CPP sooner, and for a longer period of time. From a strictly mathematical perspective, taking CPP prior to age 65 will result in a reduction in payments of 0.6% per month prior to age 65 (7.2% per year). This means that your pension will be reduced by up to 36% if you elect to take it as early as age 60. If you take CPP after age 65, your monthly payment amount will increase by 0.7% for each month after age 65 that you delay receiving it (8.4% per year). By age 70,
Read more

Investing in Precious Metals

Image
  Armchair often gets asked about investing in precious metals such as gold or silver. Investing may not be the right word here. As  Warren Buffet  will gladly tell you, gold pays no interest nor dividends to you. Metals are more of a traditional store of value, a hedge against inflation, or a good way to prepare for the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse. Buying precious metals is not something a lazy, relaxed, armchair investor should do. Please go back to  Be Rich  as well as  How to Invest . That being said, for more sophisticated investors who have already accumulated a good nest egg of wealth, it certainly doesn’t hurt to put part of your portfolio (say 5 percent) into precious metals for the reasons stated above. Avoid mutual funds and ETFs that deal in gold and silver. They’re just paper. Some are of dubious intent and may or may not be backed by the full amount of physical product. That won’t help you when the Zombie Apocalypse hits and you’re bartering for  guns and ammo . If you’r
Read more