How to Get Free Credit Reports -- With Score

Welfare recipients. If you are receiving welfare, you are entitled to get a free credit report and score.

Identity theft victims. If you believe that you may have been a victim of identity theft, you can request a free credit report. With the number of company and government laptops that get stolen with personal information on them and an ever increasing number of online personal data breaches, the possibility that you could be a victim is probably greater than you imagine.

If you do not meet any of these conditions for a free credit score, Credit Karma is a new Web site that gives you your credit score for free without forcing you to sign up for a trial offer or give your credit card number. It offsets the cost of the credit report it purchases for you by offering deals and advertising on its site.

You do have to give your Social Security number in order to access your credit score, which is something you need to decide if you're comfortable doing. While the site claims to have high security for this information, there is always a risk involved, even if it's tiny. You also won't be able to see your credit score from each of the three companies.

Credit Karma currently only offers your score for TransUnion, although it plans to offer credit scores from all three major agencies in the future.