Usually you have to pay for your credit score. The Fair Credit Reporting Act lets credit reporting companies charge a fee for credit scores.

You can get a free score in some circumstances:

Mortgage scoring notice: If you apply for a residential mortgage loan and the lender uses your credit score, the lender will send you a notice with that credit score.

Adverse action notice:You may receive a disclosure from a lender with your credit score if your application for credit gets turned down, if you have to pay a higher initial deposit fee (like for a cell phone plan), or if you do not get credit with substantially the terms you requested based on information in your credit report.

Risk-based pricing notice: You may receive a notice of your credit score from your lender if you received credit on terms less favorable than the terms available to most consumers who got credit from that lender.

You can also review your credit reports free every 12 months at the nationwide credit reporting companies. Most or all of the information that goes into a credit score comes from your credit reports.