[1]Back on March 13, 2011, I shared this post about Quizzle [2]. In this post, I indicated that you would be charged a fee if you requested your credit report from Quizzle after requesting your free report from AnnualCreditReport.com.
Well, I am not sure if I was wrong initially, or if Quizzle has changed their service. Either way, that post needs this update.
After requesting our reports in February [3] and receiving them, I went to Quizzle to run a free Experian credit score. To get the credit score, Quizzle requested that I update the credit report. A red flag raised in my thought process and stopped me in my tracks. I did not want to be charged, so I did some research. The best information I found was in these two paragraphs on Quizzle [4]:
Quizzle Provides a Totally Free Credit Report & Free Credit Score.
We give you a full and free Experian credit report [5] and a free CE credit score [6]. We foot the bill for these freebies because we believe that you should have access to all the most important information about, well, YOU!
What’s in it for us, you may ask? In addition to some helpful freebies we give you – credit report, credit score, home value estimator [7], home loan recommendations [8], budget planner [9] and expert personal finance advice [10] – we’ll also offer some important home, money and credit services to you at a low price. That’s how we make our money. However, any tools, products or services we may offer are 100 percent optional and we’ll never sell your private information.
There’s No Catch. Really & Truly. No Spam, No Unwanted Phone Calls, No Trials or Subscriptions You Don’t Want.
We’re trained to believe that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But that doesn’t mean that everything that’s free has a catch attached to it.
Before my dad signed up for Quizzle, he asked me if he would get a bunch of spam in his email inbox when he registered. It’s a smart question to ask, but for goodness sake, my own father?! Look, I get it. I’m skeptical of “free” too. But I PROMISE we will not spam you. We have a few helpful email alerts [11] we offer — like reminders when you’re eligible for your new free credit report and score (every six months) and when a new home loan program becomes available that may save you money (based on the criteria you set) — but they’re completely optional. You can turn them on or off at anytime.
With this information in writing, I updated the credit report and was not assessed a fee. Then the credit score ran using the new information from the updated credit report. Because Quizzle is a consumer-requested pull on your credit report, your score will not decrease nor will other entities see this inquiry. The best part, you can check both your Experian credit report and credit score for free every 6 months.
If you dispute any errors [12] with Experian, you can check your credit report and score in 6 months to verify that the changes are permanent. Also, if you have any changes after requesting your Experian credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com, you can recheck your report and score through Quizzle before next year.
In an effort to keep the information presented on Using Time Wisely correct and timely, I decided to update this Quizzle information as soon as possible. Having completed the Tax-Favored programs category last week [13], I chose today before jumping into the prescriptions category. But come next week, I will return to organize our insurance documents. In using time wisely, use this week to catch up. Happy organizing!
Question: Have you used Quizzle to check your credit report or credit score? If not, what is holding you back?