Free Credit Reports Missing a Piece of Crucial Information

A report from an NBC affiliate points out the fact that the free credit reports you can get each year from annualcreditreport.com are missing a crucial piece of information--that magic number known as your credit score. Although it can be useful to see your credit report without the score (so you can check for accuracy), it's tough to know what it all means without the credit score. Out of the goodness of their hearts, the credit bureaus do give you the option to purchase your credit score. I recommend doing it, even though it sucks to have to pay for your own credit score along with your "free" credit report. Unless you've recently applied for credit and know your score, it's worth the $5-7 to find out the score. Of course, if you already know your score, you probably won't be requesting your free credit reports, would you?

As a sidenote, if you've already gotten your free credit reports for the year, you can still buy access to your credit score from each of the credit bureaus. But it will cost you.