text: Really bad info posted here.\n\nLets start with the basics.\n\nBy law you can get all 3 of your credit reports free at www.annualcreditreport.com once per year.\n\nNow for credit scoring, the ONLY credit score that lenders look at is a FICO credit score. Unfortunately it is not free. You can get your FICO credit score from Equifax for $7.95 but that is only one credit bureau. \n\nWhen you apply for a mortgage the lender will pull all 3 credit bureaus and "price" your loan from the middle score, so you really need to know all 3 of your FICO scores.\n\nOnce you have reviewed your credit reports for accuracy and disputed any items that you believe to be inaccurate you can go to www.myfico.com/12 and get all 3 of your FICO scores for $45.00. This will also give you the top 4 reasons as to why your credit scores aren't higher.\n\nWhen you have all 3 of your FICO credit scores you can do some rate shopping before you apply. www.bankrate.com has calculators to determine what you can afford and in the mortgage section you can see a table of potential lenders with accurate rates in your local area.\n\nAlso go to www.myfico.com and look in the Credit Education section to see how credit scores work.\n\nGood Luck