How to get your free credit score in UK

Your credit score is the result of your financial footprint. This covers the past six years of your life and it’s fundamental in order to get any kind of loan. As we have recently covered, you can pay £2 to get your Statutory Credit Report online, which is the same credit file, your lender receives. However, if you want to have access to free credit score, you don’t have to pay anything.

Free credit score

There are now two possible ways to get your credit score through the main credit bureaus in UK. The first gives you access to your report and score, for free, once a month; the second consists of a monthly subscription plan that always monitors your score and sends you alerts if things change. You can also apply for a free trial, just remember to cancel. 😉

Experian

Experian is the biggest credit bureau in UK. This agency offers access to free credit score through Credit Matcher, which is one of their products. This provides the Experian credit score, but also comes along with a few more features that help you compare credit cards, loans and mortgages according to your status. In this way, you know what you can or can’t get. Applying doesn’t have any impact on your score.

The same bureau offers a different product called Credit Expert. This is a subscription based product which costs £14.99, after your 30 day trial. The product is a bit more complex than the first, because it also comes with a fully detailed credit report to help you understand your situation better. Further, they also help you improving your score.

Equifax

This is the second largest agency in UK. Even in this case, there are two possible options to access credit score. The first route involves using a company called ClearScore. This is a startup, which is not owned by Equifax, but provides a credit score for free. Their business model is based on sending you deals on credit cards and other financial products.

On the other hand, you can still sign up to a free 30 day trial with Equifax, and after the first month the charge is £9.95 per month. The service has similar offerings to Experian in terms of support, weekly alerts and identity protection.

Callcredit

This is the third credit bureau. This agency is not used as much as the other two by banks and lenders, although the site says “it’s the fastest growing agency in UK”. The company offers a similar service to Credit Matcher, called Noodle. You can use this to get your free credit score.

Our advice is to keep track of your credit score, at least once a year. It’s important to remember what really matters is the credit report; the score is unique to each lender and also bureau. If you want to keep track of it, you can still use the three free services to compare how they calculate it based on your credit history.

We are extensively covering credit score, because we think it’s a really relevant topic, especially if you have just finished University. We have already covered five common facts about your score and different ways to boost it, if you want to read more.