I'm surprised that these people are allowed to use their extremely misleading ads on TV.

The "free" ain't free. You will NOT get your FICO score free unless you buy their credit report service which ain't free.You can get just your FICO score for $14.95/mo. at Experian.

All their ads say just one bad score will hurt you. Nonsense. All 3 of your FICO's will be within 20 points of each other so the ads showing a guy with 2 good scores and one very bad score are false. That will never happen. All 3 agencies use the same info sources and all 3 employ similar paradigms for calculating your score.

However, "You may request your free credit report online, request your report by phone or request your report through the mail. Free credit reports requested online are viewable immediately upon authentication of identity. Free credit reports requested by phone or mail will be processed within 15 days of receiving your request."

By Fed law, you may request, once a year, a free credit report from TransUnion, Equifax, or Experian. Each is required to answer your request,so you can get a free report 3 times a year; once a year from each. It will not include your FICO score but it will include a complete credit report you can use to monitor your credit activity.

If you request your score to many times or a lender requests it , it goes against your report.

SSC wrote:If you request your score to many times or a lender requests it , it goes against your report.

I'm not sure I can agree with this totally. Most inquiries do count, but not all. For instance,

When a loan is sought from several sources for a major purchase, only one request will be "hard" (counted)

Your personal inquiries,I believe, are never counted,as long as you are willing to pay for the service.

The "one free report a year" you are entitled to doesn't count.

Unsolicited requests placed by credit providers in anticipation of offering you a "pre-approved" account are "soft", and not counted. However, if you receive a card/account offer and fill it out and submit it,it counts.The trick is to NEVER apply for any account unless you must do so.