ClearScore Canada: Check Your Credit Score For Free

We love credit cards. There is no way around it, a good credit card or two can improve your long-term financial situation provided you have good habits, but can also unlock a whole world of travel experiences through credit card rewards.

However, the only way to have a good understanding of where you land in the world of credit is to know your credit score and what’s on your credit report. For many years, obtaining this data was possible but not straightforward. Today, services like ClearScore Canada allow you to access your credit score and report in minutes and for free, forever.

Let’s take a look at our ClearScore Canada review and how you can use this tool to check your credit score and understand your financial situation, all for free.

What is ClearScore Canada?

ClearScore Canada is a service that gives Canadians the ability to access their free credit score and credit report online.

ClearScore operates in 5 countries around the globe, including Canada, and has over 20 million users who use them as their tool of choice when it comes to accessing their credit reports and score. Their platform is safe and secure to use, using bank level security with 256-bit encryption to keep your data secure, which is especially important when accessing and reviewing sensitive financial information.

The Importance of Knowing & Understanding Your Credit Score

Whether you are diving into the world of miles and points or are simply looking to have a better grasp on your personal financial situation, understanding your credit score and report is a key part of good financial health. Creditworthiness is utilized for many big parts of life, including mortgages, car loans, personal loans, and credit cards.

Not only will knowing your credit score give you an idea as to where you stand personally, but a good service like ClearScore will also provide you with actionable information as to things you can improve on to build and improve your credit score over the long term. Remember, building a credit score takes time, but consistent and good financial habits will pay off when it comes to your creditworthiness in the future.

If the concept of your credit profile, including credit scores and credit reports is new to you, learning everything you need to know about credit scores and how credit cards work will set you on the right path to getting a better understanding of your financial situation.

How to Check Your Credit Score with ClearScore Canada

ClearScore makes it easy to sign up and access your free credit score and credit report within 3 minutes.

Click here to sign-up for ClearScore for free.

You will need to provide a few pieces of personal information, including full legal name, date of birth, home address, and an email address and password.

Once you fill out the above information, you will be prompted to answer a few questions that are related to your credit profile to ensure your information is what is being accessed from the credit bureaus. Some examples of questions you can expect to receive include:

• With which Royal Bank of Canada branch location do you have an active personal or home equity line of credit?
• You have a credit card (with an account number ending in “1234”) with which of the following financial institutions?

Upon successful registration and validation of your credit profile, you will be logged into your ClearScore account. Here, you will see your credit score immediately and clearly displayed.

ClearScore updates your credit score weekly, and it is best practice to check your information at least once a month to ensure you stay on top of things.

Other Features Offered by Clearscore Canada

While learning what your credit score is may be the most valuable feature of ClearScore, they also offer a variety of other tools and reports to better understand your financial health. These different tools can be viewed through the menu bar at the top of the website.

Credit Report

Now that you know where your credit score lies, looking at your credit report is the logical next step to digging deeper into what your credit score consists of. This set of data provides you with ideas as to how you can improve your credit score in addition to showcasing what you are doing well.

Other neat features include being able to see your payment history and if you paid on time or if a payment was missed. You can also see your utilization rate, meaning the current amount of credit you are using versus the total credit available. Payment history and utilization rate factor into your overall credit score, so it is important to be on top of these two pieces of data.

The credit report is also the page to check out if you want to see a summary of all your open credit accounts, including what was reported as the last balance. You can also check a list of credit application inquiries, the personal information tied to your credit profile, and view any consumer statements on your credit file.

Credit Offers

ClearScore also provides offers for financial products that are aligned with your credit file. This can include credit cards, personal loans, and mortgages.

When accessing the credit card panel, you will be able to see the approval odds tag accompanying every card offer which showcases your approval odds and likelihood for acceptance. These approval odds can give you an idea of your chances of being extended a new credit card but do not guarantee acceptance and are subject to lenders’ checks of your credit status.

The credit card panel also showcases the rewards value tag, which highlights how much you can expect to receive in dollars from various rewards credit card offers. Similar to the Frugal Flyer card comparison tool, this rewards value tag calculates net value, taking into account both the welcome bonus and the fees. However, ClearScore goes a step further by only suggesting credit cards that are best for you, based on your credit profile.

While I can see the value in using a tool like this for loans and mortgages, I would recommend looking around to ensure you are getting the best welcome bonus on a new credit card before applying. For example, receiving a referral link from another cardholder may result in a better welcome bonus, or ClearScore may even have a targeted offer that is better than what is available elsewhere.

You could also earn additional cash back by going through a rebate portal, such as Frugal Flyer Rebates, if the credit card you are interested in is available for sign-up.

Identity Protection Monitoring

ClearScore also provides an identity protection monitoring service. This service focuses on digital security and monitors for stolen passwords for the email you registered with, any credit file changes that look concerning, as well as general security tips for your online presence and financial habits.

Credit Timeline

One of the more interactive and neat features of ClearScore is the credit timeline. This feature displays a graph that showcases your financial history, including your credit score, long-term debt, short-term debt, total credit limit, payments, and spending.

I’m a huge nerd for data, so this part is quite neat to see from a visualization standpoint. Not to mention, this will make it easy to monitor your credit accounts month-over-month and notice any trends to keep you that much more in touch with your credit situation.

Conclusion

Understanding your credit profile, credit score, and credit report is a core component of financial health and is something every Canadian should have access to. ClearScore makes it simple to access this information without having to pay for it, with a quick sign-up process and easy-to-understand data.

Sign up here for ClearScore today and get your free credit score and report in three minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions