You can check your FICO credit score for free through several major banks, credit card issuers, and the official myFICO website. The easiest route for most people is logging into an existing bank or credit card account, where your FICO score may already be waiting under a “credit score” or “credit health” tab. If you don’t have an account that offers it, you still have options that cost nothing.
Free FICO Scores From Banks and Card Issuers
Several large financial institutions provide your FICO score at no charge, typically updated monthly. You can find it in your online account dashboard or mobile app. Here are major issuers that offer free FICO scores:
- American Express: Free FICO score available to anyone, not just cardholders
- Discover: Free FICO score available to anyone, even without a Discover account
- Bank of America: Free FICO score for cardholders
- Barclays: Free FICO score for cardholders
- Citi: Free FICO score for some account types
- Wells Fargo: Free FICO score for customers with consumer credit accounts
If you already have a card or bank account with one of these institutions, check your online dashboard first. The score is usually labeled clearly as “FICO Score” along with the bureau it’s pulled from. Discover and American Express stand out because they’ll show a FICO score to anyone who signs up on their sites, regardless of whether you hold one of their cards.
Free FICO Score From myFICO
The company behind the FICO scoring model, Fair Isaac Corporation, runs myFICO.com. Their free plan gives you a FICO Score 8 based on your Equifax credit report, updated monthly. You just need to create an account. This is a good option if you don’t have a bank or card account that provides one, since FICO Score 8 is the version most widely used by lenders for general purposes like personal loans, student loans, and retail credit.
Make Sure It’s Actually a FICO Score
Not every “free credit score” is a FICO score. Many popular apps and services, including Credit Karma and even Chase Credit Journey, provide a VantageScore instead. VantageScore is a competing model built by the three credit bureaus. Both use the same 300 to 850 range, which makes them easy to confuse, but they weigh your credit data differently and can produce noticeably different numbers.
The simplest way to tell: look for the words “FICO” on the score page. If you see “VantageScore” or just “credit score” without the FICO label, it’s not a FICO score. Even when a score is described as an “Experian score,” that could refer to either a VantageScore or a FICO score pulled from Experian’s data. Always check the fine print below the number.
This distinction matters because roughly 90% of top lenders use some version of FICO when making lending decisions. A VantageScore can still give you a useful ballpark of your credit health, but if you want to know what a lender will likely see, you want the FICO number.
Why There Are Dozens of FICO Scores
FICO doesn’t produce just one score. There are over 40 versions tailored to different lending situations, and the number you see from your bank might not match the one a mortgage lender pulls. Each version weighs your credit history slightly differently depending on the type of loan.
For mortgages, lenders typically use older versions: FICO Score 2 (Experian), FICO Score 4 (TransUnion), and FICO Score 5 (Equifax). These tend to be more conservative than newer models. Auto lenders commonly use FICO Auto Score 8 or FICO Auto Score 9, which are fine-tuned to predict how you’ll handle a car payment. Credit card issuers often rely on FICO Bankcard Score 8 or 9. For most other lending, including personal loans, FICO Score 8 is the standard.
The free scores you get from banks and the myFICO free plan are almost always FICO Score 8. That’s a solid general indicator, but if you’re about to apply for a mortgage and want to see the exact scores your lender will pull, you’ll need a paid service.
Paid Plans for Full Score Access
If you want to see industry-specific versions across all three bureaus, myFICO offers paid subscriptions:
- Basic plan ($19.95/month): Covers one bureau (Experian) with monthly updates. Includes multiple FICO score versions for mortgage, auto, and credit card lending, plus credit monitoring and a score simulator.
- Advanced plan ($29.95/month): Covers all three bureaus, but updates only every three months. Includes the same score versions and monitoring features.
- Premier plan ($39.95/month): Covers all three bureaus with monthly updates. Adds a mortgage score simulator on top of the standard FICO Score 8 simulator.
All paid plans include credit reports, score monitoring alerts, and identity theft insurance up to $1 million. For most people, these plans make the most sense as a short-term subscription. If you’re preparing to apply for a mortgage in the next few months, you might subscribe for a month or two to see your mortgage-specific scores, then cancel once you’ve locked in your rate.
When a Free Score Is Enough
If you’re not actively shopping for a major loan, the free FICO Score 8 from your bank or myFICO gives you what you need. It tracks the same credit behaviors that matter across all FICO versions: payment history, how much of your available credit you’re using, the age of your accounts, your mix of credit types, and recent applications for new credit. A significant move in your FICO 8 will generally show up across other versions too.
Check it monthly to catch any unexpected drops, which could signal an error on your credit report or unauthorized activity. The free score itself doesn’t affect your credit. Viewing your own score is considered a “soft inquiry,” so you can check as often as you like without any impact.