Free Equifax Credit Score and Report
- Deal Link:
- https://www.consumer.equifax.ca/persona ... re-report/
- Price:
- $0.00
- Savings:
- 100%
- Retailer:
- Equifax Canada
Thanks to a new law in Québec that went into effect on February 1st, 2021, and that is meant to regulate credit bureaus after Desjardins' data leak, TransUnion and Equifax are required to provide customers with free credit scores and reports online.
The score provided by Equifax is, of course, an Equifax score (ERS 1.0 I assume, but it did not check), which is not widely used by lenders.
Credit freezes are also coming to Canada, thanks to this law; TransUnion and Equifax said that it will take about two years before they are available, though.
I have not seen any indication of a free credit score on TransUnion's website yet, but it should be coming soon.
EDIT:
Just to be clear--
- Every Canadian can get their score and report for free from Equifax. This is not a promotion linked to a data breach. Equifax is simply complying to the law -- it is not a "gift" from them.
- There are two credit bureaus in Canada: Equifax and TransUnion. Third parties like Borrowell and Credit Karma get your credit file and your credit score from Equifax (Borrowell) or TransUnion (Credit Karma).
- The free score and report from Equifax do not replace a credit monitoring product form either Equifax or TransUnion, since the free score and report do not provide alerts and since you'll need to manually "update" your score and report.
- The scores that Equifax and TransUnion offer are proprietary scores (scores developed by Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada). Lenders generally do not use these scores; they will rather check your FICO 8 score which is not sold or made available to consumers. If you've read about VantageScore, it is a score model developed by Equifax (USA), TransUnion (USA) and Experian (USA) and made for US consumers -- not Canadians. Canadians do not have a VantageScore (therefore, lenders won't use it either).
- Yes, you could already get your Equifax score and report for free using Borrowell, Mogo, verify.me, CIBC, ... (which will provide you with your ERS 2.0 score based on your Equifax credit file). However, it is now possible to get your score and report directly from Equifax, without giving your information to third parties like Borrowell, which uses your information to match you with loans and credit cards offers.
- It is normal that the score you see from Equifax is different from your Borrowell/Mogo/CIBC/... score. The score you get directly from Equifax is the Equifax Risk Score 1.0 (ERS 1.0), whereas Borrowell/Mogo/CIBC/... gives you your Equifax Risk Score 2.0 (ERS 2.0). Different score models = different credit scores.
- It is normal that the score you see from TransUnion (or from third parties like Credit Karma, that use your TransUnion credit file) is different from the one you will see from Equifax: TransUnion and Credit Karma (and the CreditVision Dashboard that is available with BMO, RBC, Scotia, Desjardins, Capital One, ...) use data from your TransUnion credit file to calculate the TransUnion CreditVision Risk Score. Since your Equifax credit file might be different from your TransUnion credit file, and since different credit score formulas give different credit score, this is normal.
- Checking your score will not lower it.
Hope this clarifies.
EDIT 2:
- Clarified that your report and score are not automatically updated. You'll need to request another score and report for $0 if you want an update. Equifax does not work the same way as the CreditVision Dashboard (myTrueIdentity, RBC, BMO, Scotia, Desjardins...) which updates your score and report every time you log in (if an update can be made).
The score provided by Equifax is, of course, an Equifax score (ERS 1.0 I assume, but it did not check), which is not widely used by lenders.
Credit freezes are also coming to Canada, thanks to this law; TransUnion and Equifax said that it will take about two years before they are available, though.
I have not seen any indication of a free credit score on TransUnion's website yet, but it should be coming soon.
EDIT:
Just to be clear--
- Every Canadian can get their score and report for free from Equifax. This is not a promotion linked to a data breach. Equifax is simply complying to the law -- it is not a "gift" from them.
- There are two credit bureaus in Canada: Equifax and TransUnion. Third parties like Borrowell and Credit Karma get your credit file and your credit score from Equifax (Borrowell) or TransUnion (Credit Karma).
- The free score and report from Equifax do not replace a credit monitoring product form either Equifax or TransUnion, since the free score and report do not provide alerts and since you'll need to manually "update" your score and report.
- The scores that Equifax and TransUnion offer are proprietary scores (scores developed by Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada). Lenders generally do not use these scores; they will rather check your FICO 8 score which is not sold or made available to consumers. If you've read about VantageScore, it is a score model developed by Equifax (USA), TransUnion (USA) and Experian (USA) and made for US consumers -- not Canadians. Canadians do not have a VantageScore (therefore, lenders won't use it either).
- Yes, you could already get your Equifax score and report for free using Borrowell, Mogo, verify.me, CIBC, ... (which will provide you with your ERS 2.0 score based on your Equifax credit file). However, it is now possible to get your score and report directly from Equifax, without giving your information to third parties like Borrowell, which uses your information to match you with loans and credit cards offers.
- It is normal that the score you see from Equifax is different from your Borrowell/Mogo/CIBC/... score. The score you get directly from Equifax is the Equifax Risk Score 1.0 (ERS 1.0), whereas Borrowell/Mogo/CIBC/... gives you your Equifax Risk Score 2.0 (ERS 2.0). Different score models = different credit scores.
- It is normal that the score you see from TransUnion (or from third parties like Credit Karma, that use your TransUnion credit file) is different from the one you will see from Equifax: TransUnion and Credit Karma (and the CreditVision Dashboard that is available with BMO, RBC, Scotia, Desjardins, Capital One, ...) use data from your TransUnion credit file to calculate the TransUnion CreditVision Risk Score. Since your Equifax credit file might be different from your TransUnion credit file, and since different credit score formulas give different credit score, this is normal.
- Checking your score will not lower it.
Hope this clarifies.
EDIT 2:
- Clarified that your report and score are not automatically updated. You'll need to request another score and report for $0 if you want an update. Equifax does not work the same way as the CreditVision Dashboard (myTrueIdentity, RBC, BMO, Scotia, Desjardins...) which updates your score and report every time you log in (if an update can be made).
Last edited by genral on Feb 22nd, 2021 4:45 pm, edited 5 times in total.