How to Check a Credit Rating for Free Online

Credit ratings are a measure of creditworthiness and are used by financing institutions and businesses to gauge the level of risk involved when lending money. If you are a business owner who wants to check your own or a vendor's credit rating, there are several companies that offer a free credit check online. Consumers can also check their credit rating and credit score by submitting their social security number and personal information to several credit reporting agencies.

Instructions

1

Request a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com (see Resources below). This site allows you to view and print your complete credit report free of charge, online. The site is sponsored by the three major credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

2

Get a credit rating from Experian. Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus that offers a free report to consumers. You can submit personal information such as your name, address, email address and social security number to enroll in Experian's Triple Advantage program that allows full access to credit ratings, reports and other financial history data.

3

Obtain a free credit report from myFICO.com (see Resources below). This site offers a free trial for services that give you your Equifax FICO score. FICO scores are used by the largest U.S. banks and are also used by many businesses and lending agencies.

4

Check your rating and scores with FreeCreditReport.com (see Resources below). You can obtain your score for free through this website, and maintain membership to monitor your scores from the three major credit bureaus.

5

Get all three credit reports and scores from one website. Use FreebieCreditReport.com (see Resources below) to enroll in a 30-day free trial for all three credit reports and scores. This site also offers three-bureau credit monitoring and ID theft protection services.