Want Your Credit Score? Be Prepared to Pay For It

A lot is written about your credit score:

1. How to improve your credit score (from paying down credit card debt to paying your bills on time).
2. What goes into a credit score (payment history, amounts owed, etc.).
3. Why your credit score is important (better rates, loan approval and more).
4. Where to find your credit score (MyFico.com, major credit bureaus).

But what isn’t addressed very much is how much you will pay to see your credit score.

It doesn’t cost that much: $5.95 to $15.95 per score, depending on where you go and the services that come with it.

But it still costs money. And you usually have to pay for each score individually — unless you get some sort of complete score, which will cost between $35 and $50 for a report plus all three scores.

Quite honestly, I think that lenders and creditors, employers and landlords, should pay to see this information and only after you have granted your permission.

But I think that you should have access to it for free. And not just the free annual credit report from each bureau that is required by law (it doesn’t include your credit score). It’s information about your life and your habits and it affects your personal finances in a very real way. You shouldn’t have to pay for what already should be yours. But you do anyway.

What do you think? Should you have to pay to see your credit score?

image credit: sxc.hu