Free credit score and other services from Quizzle.

Quizzle is neat.

Quizzle is a free service from Quicken Loans. You can sign up for a free account through their website. One feature that I think is really nice is that when you sign up you don't have to give them your social security number, which makes me more confident in the security risk.

OK so what is Quizzle? From Quizzle's main page they say : "Quizzle is the only place that gives you a simple understanding of your home and your money, all in one spot. You'll get a free evaluation of your credit, home value, mortgage, budget and more, then get important tips on how to make the most of them (minus the confusing financial jargon)."

Quizzle has a few nice features but the best reason to sign up is that they give you a free credit score. The score they use is a "National Equivalency Score" from the Experian credit bureau. So it should be noted that this is not an actual FICO score. The FICO scores are available for purchase at myFICO But for personal use I think a "FAKO" score is just fine to get an idea of how your credit is doing. In addition to the credit score you can also see a copy of your Experian credit report. You get a new credit score and credit report every 6 months.

Quizzle gives you letter grades (A,B,...F) for your financial aspects including : Credit, Home Value, Mortgage, Budget and Rainy day fund. Then Quizzle combines all the financial data in to one overall Quizzle score which gives you an overall financial grade. These scores help you see how you're doing on your finances in general.

How they grade them varies: For the rainy day fund their goal is to have 4 months living expenses. Home value grade is based on how much your home as appreciated or depreciated since you bought it. They get a estimate of the homes current value from CyberHomes. Given that home values have gone down recently, it would be no surprise for many people to have a low score on this category. If you have depreciation overall then you'll get a D or F. The credit score grade is straight basis of how your credit score compares to the population in general. The mortgage grade is a little iffy in my opinion. They seem to grade you based on how much you'd save if you refinanced more than anything. That is very dependent on the ups and downs of interest rates. Personally I think that comparing your debt to your total income would be a better measure of your financial health.

My scores are pretty good. My overall Quizzle score is 96 out of 100. I got all 'A' grades except for home appreciation which is a 'B'. My home was bought 10 years ago and it has appreciated +50% in that time for annual increase rate of 4%.


If you'd like another opinion then here is another review of Quizzle from the blog Stop Buying Crap.

Overall I recommend Quizzle. Its a nice easy way to get access to a free credit score and their financial grades are a nice tool as well.