Equifax Credit Score Card

So I decided to check out the “Equifax Credit Score Card™” this morning.

It’s a new service from credit bureau Equifax that provides a free quasi-credit score without the need for a credit card or trial sign-up.

Yep, all you need to do is fill in all your basic information and create an account. In return, Equifax displays a credit score range and puts you in a certain bucket.

There are five buckets, ranging from 280-559, the lowest credit score bucket, all the way up to the 760-850 bucket, which I happened to fall into. Hot dog!

Aside from the so-called credit score card revealing that I had excellent credit, it also gave me recommendations on ways I could improve, although somewhat vague.

This is similar to what you’d see on a legitimate credit report, both the free government one and the ones you have to pay for.

Equifax said I could achieve an even higher credit score if I had credit history tied to a wider array of account types, such as mortgages or auto loans (see how a Fico score is calculated)

Additionally, the report said the proportion of retail accounts, such as department store cards, compared to all my other accounts could be holding me back some (FYI: I don’t have any store cards).

Of course, these are pretty incidental items, and seeing that my credit score is somewhere between 760-850, I’m not too bothered.

If you’re above 760, you’ve got an excellent credit score (at least in my opinion), so really all I need to do is keep on keepin’ on.

Neat little service if you’re just curious where you stand credit-wise, but don’t want to provide a credit card or actually pay for anything.

Of course, it doesn’t beat a real free credit score, which is recommended if you’re actually shopping for something major like a mortgage or car loan.

Take a look at the screenshot for my Equifax Credit Score Card™ below:

(top photo: cbowns)