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MyFICO: Is It Worth the Cost?
MyFICO is a service that sells you access to your FICO credit scores and monitors credit. The best coverage isn't cheap, but you can find free alternatives to some features.
Lisa Mulka is a freelance writer specializing in personal finance content. With more than 15 years of writing experience, Lisa most recently authored a book on personal financial literacy and served as lead writer on the FDIC’s Money Smart for Young People program. She holds a bachelor’s in creative writing, and master’s degrees in written communication and in educational technology. Lisa lives with her husband and two children in Michigan, where she spends her free time teaching the next generation of writers at Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.
Amanda Barroso, Ph.D., is a writer and content strategist helping consumers navigate budgeting, credit building and credit scoring. Before joining NerdWallet, Amanda wrote about demographic trends at the Pew Research Center and earned a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.
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MyFICO offers you access to your FICO credit scores, credit reports and credit monitoring. There’s a free option and three paid tiers starting at $19.95. Here’s the catch: Only the most expensive plan covers all three credit bureaus, so cheaper plans might not show you the full picture.
Whether myFICO is worth paying for comes down to how much detail you need and how often you plan to check it.
What credit score do you get with myFICO?
Each myFICO subscription includes at least a standard FICO 8 score. The paid plans come with additional scores, including those commonly used for mortgages, auto loans and in credit card approval decisions.
Here’s why that matters: You don’t have a single FICO score — you have many.
FICO has several different versions of its scoring model used for different purposes. For example, mortgage lenders still use the older FICO 2, 4 and 5 versions, even as FICO has established newer versions.
The "+" shows what's new at each tier — each plan keeps everything from the one before it, then adds the feature listed next to the "+".
🔎 The free plan and the Basic plan only cover one credit bureau, which leaves a pretty big gap. In other words, you’re not seeing what lenders might see.
🗓️ Deciding between the Advanced or Premier? It comes down to how often you want your report to be refreshed. Prefer monthly over quarterly? Then go with the Premier.
💲 The one-time report for all three bureaus is more expensive than one month of the Advanced subscription ($59.85 vs. $29.95). The coverage is similar, so only go with the one-time report if you truly can’t be bothered with an ongoing subscription.
Meet MoneyNerd, your weekly news decoder
So much news. So little time. NerdWallet's new weekly newsletter makes sense of the headlines that affect your wallet.
MyFICO gives you real, accurate FICO scores, since it’s run by the company itself. But you’ll pay for that: even the cheapest plan costs nearly $225 for the first year.
Free alternatives to myFICO
Most people can get similar protection for free by piecing together a few tools instead of paying for one bundled service. Here’s how:
Free FICO score: Some banks, credit unions and credit card issuers offer customers a free FICO 8 score. It’s usually based on data from one credit bureau, so it won't show the full picture — but it's enough to show whether you’re on track or need to work on building credit.
Free credit reports: Each of the three credit bureaus provides free weekly credit reports to consumers. Checking all three yourself takes a bit more work than myFICO's Premier Plan, but you'd save about $480 a year.
Other free score options: Services like NerdWallet’s free credit report are another option. Just check which credit bureaus the free service pulls from — NerdWallet uses TransUnion, for example, so you may want to check Equifax and Experian using another source.
Identity protection: MyFICO offers some identity theft protection, but it’s not as strong as services built just for that purpose. But you can freeze your credit for free yourself. It's effective because it prevents someone from opening new credit accounts in your name.
» What’s the difference between FICO and VantageScore?
MyFICO pros and cons
Weigh the pros and cons before you subscribe to a myFICO plan:
Pros
Convenience: Only one place to check all your scores and reports, no manual tracking needed.
Full picture: Paid plans show you all your FICO scores, including ones lenders use for mortgages and auto loans.
Cons
Cost: Three bureau coverage means paying $29.95 to $39.95 per month.
Limited ID protection: Not as strong as services built just for identity theft.
Meet MoneyNerd, your weekly news decoder
So much news. So little time. NerdWallet's new weekly newsletter makes sense of the headlines that affect your wallet.
MyFICO has a free version with basic features. The more robust benefits that consumers would likely want, such as getting the larger set of FICO scores, are only available with paid subscriptions.
Is myFICO legit? Is myFICO legit?
MyFICO is run by FICO, so you can trust that it will give you the accurate FICO score or scores your selected plan includes.