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If you want to get your credit score for free you now can at Discover whether or not, you have a Discover Card. People will get access to the very same credit score that 90% of lenders use to see if applicants are creditworthy for everything from home and car loans to apartment rentals and a new credit card.
With the rollout of Credit Scorecard, Discover is the first credit card company to offer everyone free scores. Along with the score, Discover will also provide a credit summary detailing what factors went into creating it so people can get a handle on how they can up their score.
This is all part Discover's initiative to educate consumers. "Credit scores play an important role in many of life's big moments, like buying a home or a car, taking out a student loan, even renting an apartment," said Roger Hochschild, Discover's president and chief operating officer. "At Discover, we think it's important that consumers have the information they need to manage their credit. With Credit Scorecard, this information is readily available to everyone, Discover customers and non-customers alike, in a way that's both easy to use and to understand."
Getting the score
To get their free credit scores, Discover cardholders and everyone else can sign up on the website. Once they do they will get a credit profile tailored just for them, along with their FICO Score. The report and scores are created using data from Experian, a consumer credit reporting agency.
Checking in on your FICO Score can help
According to Discover, consumers believe that looking at their score can help them make some positive changes. A recent survey commissioned by Discover found that 61% of people who had looked at their credit score said that just by doing so they had started making better choices. They were inspired to make decisions that boosted their scores, like paying down their loans, being timely when paying bills, and keeping balances on their credit cards low.
Also 60% indicated that they started to see their score get better, with 21% saying that it improved greatly, while 39% said they saw a slight change for the better.
Credit Scorecard is the newest initiative launched by Discover to assist consumers with managing finances and establishing their credit. They started in 2013 by offering their cardholders access to their FICO score for free via their statements and online. Then two years later they released a feature that allowed cardholders a way to keep track of their most recent scores.
