There is no such thing as Free Credit Score Instantly
Many people keep confusing between free credit reports and free credit scores.
You are entitled under the FACT Act, enacted on 2003 to a free copy of your credit REPORT every 12 months. Unfortunately, this does not include a free credit SCORE.
It is true that your credit score must be disclosed to you upon request. This service however is not free of charge. You need to pay, usually ~$20 for a one time score disclosure, or you can subscribe for an unlimited disclosure service.
All of the 3 major credit bureaus sell credit scores to consumers, as well as myFico.com.
Many sites do advertise “Free Credit Score Instantly” baldly on their home page. Don’t fall for that. As you’ve already found out, they all ask for your credit card details, even for the “Free” trial period.
You may get a score, but be sure that you will be charged for buying something from them without even knowing it, just because you’ve accidentally clicked a link on their site. Not to mention the charges for not canceling the service during the trial period.
That having said, there are a few other ways to get totally free credit score instantly. The best place for it, and my personal preference is Credit Karma. They offer completely free credit score, credit monitoring, fico calculator and a few more services. The free score that they offer is the Trans Union’s version of FICO, and it is based on your credit file from Trans Union,
The score is very close to your real FICO score, and people report that it’s very much correlated to it as well.
See free-annual-credit-score.html and free-fico-credit-score.html for more information.
Quizzle is another service that gives away free credit score instantly. As I haven’t tried them myself, so I’m not sure how good they are. As I understand – they give CE scores, which are practically useless because creditors don’t use them.
Some Banks and Credit Card Companies give to their customers free credit scores and other related tools as part of their financial services. I get a completely free credit score from my bank and my credit card company. You may be required to have a substantial account activity to qualify, so it’s best to inquire with them yourself.