Every Canadian has a legal right to their credit report at no cost. The problem isn’t whether you can get it — it’s knowing which of the many options actually gives you your full picture, and which ones quietly leave out half the story. Here is everything you need to check, understand, and protect your credit without spending a dollar.
Before getting into the details, here are the answers to the questions that come up most often. These are the things worth knowing before you do anything else.
- 1 Is there actually a way to get my full credit report for free — with no credit card, no trial? Yes, and it is your legal right. Both Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada are required to give every Canadian access to their credit report at no charge. You can request it online through each bureau’s website in about ten minutes, with no credit card required and no subscription. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) backs this right for all Canadians. What many people confuse is that the bureaus also sell paid monitoring subscriptions — those are optional, and you do not need them to see your report.
- 2 Why is my Equifax score different from my TransUnion score? This is normal and expected, not a sign of an error. Not all lenders report to both bureaus. A creditor may send your payment history to Equifax but not TransUnion, or vice versa. The two bureaus also use slightly different scoring models. A gap of 10 to 30 points between your two scores is very common. A gap of more than 50 to 100 points is worth investigating — it may point to missing information or an error on one file. That is exactly why checking both matters.
- 3 Will checking my own credit report hurt my score? No. Checking your own report is called a soft inquiry, and it has zero impact on your score — no matter how many times you check. Only a hard inquiry triggered by a lender when you apply for new credit can affect your score. Apps like Borrowell and Credit Karma, as well as the bureaus’ own free access portals, all use soft inquiries. You can check your score every week if you want to, and nothing will change because of it.
- 4 What is the difference between a credit report and a credit score? Your credit report is the full story; your credit score is one number derived from it. The report lists every account you have opened, every payment you have made or missed, every hard inquiry from a lender, and any collections or public records on file. Your score is a three-digit number (300 to 900 in Canada) that summarizes your risk level for lenders. You need both — the score tells you where you stand at a glance, but the report shows you exactly why and lets you catch errors that could be dragging the number down.
- 5 What score do I need to get a mortgage or the best interest rates? Most lenders want to see at least 660 to approve a mortgage, but the best rates generally require 720 or higher. Equifax considers 660 to 724 “good” and 760 and above “excellent.” With a score below 600, you will typically need an alternative lender and will pay higher interest. Every tier between 600 and 760 has a real dollar impact — a stronger score on a $400,000 mortgage can save tens of thousands of dollars in interest over the loan’s life.
- 6 How often should I check my credit report? A quarterly check using free apps covers most situations, and pulling your official bureau reports once or twice a year is a solid routine. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada suggests staggering your official reports — pull Equifax now and TransUnion in six months — so you have a fresh look at each file twice a year without waiting twelve months between checks. If you have experienced identity theft or suspect fraud, check immediately and monitor monthly until you are sure everything is clear.
- 7 What are the two most important things that affect my credit score? Payment history and credit utilization together account for roughly 65 percent of your score. Payment history (whether you pay on time) carries the most weight at approximately 35 percent. Credit utilization — how much of your available credit limit you are using — comes second at roughly 30 percent. Keeping your balances below 30 percent of your credit limit, and ideally below 10 percent, has a measurable positive effect. Everything else — length of credit history, types of credit, and recent inquiries — matters but is secondary to those two.
- 8 I found a mistake on my report. Can I fix it without paying? Yes, and disputing errors is completely free at both Equifax and TransUnion. You can file a dispute online through each bureau’s website, by phone, or by mail. The bureau must investigate and correct genuine errors. If you believe the dispute process was not handled properly, you can escalate a complaint to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. Errors — such as an account that doesn’t belong to you or a late payment that was actually on time — can drag your score down significantly, and getting them removed can produce a meaningful score improvement quickly.
Many Canadians don’t realize that getting their credit report for free is not a promotional offer or a loophole — it is a right established under Canadian law and supported by the federal government.
Under provincial privacy legislation across Canada, and supported by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), every Canadian is entitled to a free copy of their credit report from each of the two major bureaus — Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada. You do not need to pay for a subscription, provide a credit card, or sign up for any trial to exercise this right. Both bureaus are legally obligated to comply. The FCAC’s own guidance on credit reports confirms this and provides resources for Canadians who run into obstacles.
Both Equifax and TransUnion also sell paid credit monitoring subscriptions alongside their free access. These subscription services typically offer features like continuous monitoring alerts, score simulators, and identity protection tools. They are optional. When you visit either bureau’s website to get your free report, read the page carefully — it is easy to accidentally click on a paid product rather than the free consumer disclosure. Look specifically for the words “consumer disclosure” or “free credit report” rather than “credit monitoring” or “identity protection,” which tend to be the paid tiers.
While Canadians outside Quebec can get their free credit report from both bureaus, TransUnion only provides a free numerical credit score to Quebec residents as a legal requirement. Residents of all other provinces can get their free credit report from TransUnion, but to also receive the numerical score for free, they typically use a third-party app like Credit Karma or ClearScore. Equifax now offers a free monthly score update to all Canadians online, in addition to the free report.
Going straight to the source gives you the most complete version of your file. Here is how each bureau’s free access works.
Equifax Canada gives Canadians online access to their full credit report at no charge. You create a free account on their website, answer a series of identity verification questions based on your own file (things like previous addresses or account amounts), and your report is available on screen within minutes. Equifax also provides a free monthly credit score update alongside the report — making it one of the more complete free offerings directly from a bureau. The identity verification process uses details from your existing credit history, so there is no credit card needed and no impact on your score.
For those who prefer not to go online, Equifax also accepts mail-in requests. Write to: Equifax Canada Co., National Consumer Relations, P.O. Box 190, Station Jean-Talon, Montreal, Quebec, H1S 2Z2. Include two pieces of government-issued identification. The phone option is also available if you prefer to speak with someone directly.
TransUnion Canada provides your full credit report at no charge through their website. The process is similar to Equifax — verify your identity, answer questions based on your file details, and access your report. The important distinction is that TransUnion’s free report does not automatically include your numerical credit score for most provinces — it includes your full account history, inquiry log, and public records, but the score itself is a separate product outside of Quebec. To see your TransUnion score for free, most Canadians use Credit Karma or ClearScore (covered in the next section).
TransUnion also has offices you can visit in person in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Mail requests go to: TransUnion Consumer Relations Department, P.O. Box 338, LCD1, Hamilton, Ontario, L8L 7W2. Bring or include originals or copies of two pieces of identification.
These services fill an important gap: they give you your credit score on an ongoing basis for free, with regular updates and additional tools. None of them require a credit card to sign up. Each pulls from one bureau — which is why using at least two together gives you the full picture.
Borrowell was the first company in Canada to offer free credit scores, and today more than four million Canadians use it. It pulls from Equifax and updates your score weekly — faster than the monthly cadence at the bureau itself. Sign-up requires only your email address and some basic personal information; no Social Insurance Number and no credit card. Once set up, you can view your Equifax credit score and a simplified version of your credit report, see what factors are most affecting your number, and receive personalized suggestions for improving it.
Borrowell also offers an AI-powered credit coach called Molly, a rent reporting feature called Rent Advantage (which lets renters build credit by reporting their rent payments to Equifax), and a product marketplace where they recommend credit cards and loans matched to your credit profile. The service is free because Borrowell earns a referral fee if you take a financial product recommendation — but ignoring the recommendations is always an option, and the credit monitoring stays free regardless.
Credit Karma is the natural pairing with Borrowell for Canadian credit monitoring — where Borrowell gives you the Equifax picture, Credit Karma gives you the TransUnion one. Your TransUnion credit score updates weekly, and the service sends daily monitoring alerts when anything significant changes on your file — a new account opens, a hard inquiry appears, or something goes to collections. Signing up is free with an email address, requires no credit card, and checking your score has no impact on it.
The Canadian version of Credit Karma is more limited than the U.S. product in terms of additional financial tools, but it delivers what most people actually need: a reliable, regularly updated TransUnion credit score and report access in one place. It also shows your approval likelihood for credit products before you apply, which can help avoid unnecessary hard inquiries. The interface is clean and easy to navigate on both mobile and desktop.
ClearScore is a British fintech with over 20 million users across Canada, the UK, Australia, and South Africa. In Canada, it pulls from TransUnion and provides your credit score and a full downloadable credit report — the one-tap full report download stands out as a practical feature that not all apps offer. The identity setup takes a little longer than some competitors, as it asks more verification questions, but once through, you have easy access to your full file.
ClearScore updates monthly rather than weekly, which is less frequent than Borrowell or Credit Karma. The app also surfaces credit card and loan offers tailored to your profile. It is most useful as a supplement to one of the weekly-updating services, or for someone who specifically wants a clean, downloadable copy of their TransUnion report.
Mogo is a Canadian fintech platform that combines free credit score monitoring with other financial products — personal loans, a prepaid Visa card, and mortgage services. The credit score (from Equifax, updated monthly) is genuinely free, and Mogo is worth considering if you want to keep your credit monitoring inside the same platform where you manage other financial tools. It is less focused on credit education than Borrowell and less alert-heavy than Credit Karma, making it a better fit for people who want a straightforward score check alongside banking features rather than deep credit analytics.
Several major Canadian banks now include free credit score access as part of their standard online or mobile banking. If you are already a customer, this can be the most convenient option — no separate app to download.
Scotiabank’s CreditView service, available to most account holders, provides a credit score in the banking app or online portal. RBC Credit Score, TD MyAdvantage, and CIBC’s Credit Score Tracker offer similar functionality for their respective customers. Wealthsimple also shows credit score information within its platform. The exact bureau each bank pulls from varies — most use TransUnion for this feature, though that can change over time.
Convenient as they are, bank-based credit score tools tend to be more limited than dedicated monitoring apps. Most update only monthly. They typically do not include detailed credit report data — just the score and a few summary factors. They rarely send monitoring alerts for specific changes on your file, such as a new inquiry or a collections account appearing. For a general sense of where you stand, they work fine. For active monitoring of your full credit picture, a dedicated app gives you more.
Use your bank’s credit score tool for a quick monthly glance — it requires zero extra effort since you are already in your banking app. Layer a dedicated service like Borrowell on top for weekly updates and your full Equifax file, and Credit Karma or ClearScore for the TransUnion view. Together, these give you more coverage than any single option, and all of it is free.
Canada uses a 300 to 900 scale. Both Equifax and TransUnion use this range, though their exact tier boundaries differ slightly. Here is what each level practically means for your borrowing life.
The average Canadian score sits around 680 — squarely in the “good” range. That sounds fine, but it means most Canadians are not at the best-rate threshold. On a $400,000 mortgage, the interest rate difference between a good score and an excellent one can translate into tens of thousands of dollars in extra costs over the life of the loan. Improving your score from 680 to 720 is not a vanity exercise — it has a concrete financial payoff.
- Payment history (~35%): Whether you pay on time, every time. This carries the most weight by far. Even one missed payment can stay on your report for up to six years.
- Credit utilization (~30%): How much of your available credit limit you are using. Keep it below 30 percent — ideally below 10 percent — for the strongest score.
- Length of credit history (~15%): How long your accounts have been open. Older accounts help; closing your oldest card can hurt.
- Credit mix (~10%): Having both revolving credit (credit cards) and installment credit (loans, mortgages) works in your favor.
- New credit inquiries (~10%): Each time a lender checks your credit when you apply, it creates a hard inquiry. Multiple applications in a short period can lower your score temporarily.
This table puts the key options next to each other so you can find the one that fits your situation quickly. Green indicates a clear advantage; amber indicates a moderate or conditional feature; red indicates a limitation.
| Option | Bureau | Score Included? | Update Frequency | Monitoring Alerts | Rx / Signup Needed | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equifax Canada Direct Official | Equifax | Yes — free monthly score | Monthly score update | No alerts | Free online account | Official full report, no app |
| TransUnion Canada Direct Official | TransUnion | Report yes; score = Quebec only | On-demand only | No alerts | Free online account | Official full report, no app |
| Borrowell Best Overall | Equifax | Yes — free weekly | Weekly | Yes — score change alerts | Email only, no SIN/card | Primary Equifax monitoring |
| Credit Karma Canada | TransUnion | Yes — free weekly | Weekly | Yes — daily alerts | Email only, no SIN/card | Primary TransUnion monitoring |
| ClearScore | TransUnion | Yes — free monthly | Monthly | Basic alerts | Email only | Full report download |
| Mogo | Equifax | Yes — free monthly | Monthly | Limited | Email only | Credit + financial products |
| Scotiabank CreditView | TransUnion | Yes — free | Monthly | Basic | Scotiabank account required | Scotiabank customers |
| RBC / TD / CIBC Apps | Varies | Yes — free | Monthly | Limited or none | Bank account required | Existing bank customers |
Bureau partnerships and features can change. Verify current details on each service’s website before signing up. No credit card should ever be required to access these free services.
The right approach is not the same for everyone. Here is practical advice for the situations that come up most.
Pull both your Equifax and TransUnion reports before you start talking to lenders — not after. Mortgage lenders pull hard inquiries, and knowing exactly what they will see prevents surprises. Use Borrowell for the Equifax picture and Credit Karma for TransUnion, then request the official free reports from both bureaus directly to confirm the full detail. If your score is below 720, spend three to six months reducing credit card balances (aim for under 10 percent utilization) and confirming there are no errors on your file before applying. A 20-point improvement at this stage can meaningfully change your rate offer.
Pull both bureau reports immediately — not just one. Fraudulent accounts and unauthorized inquiries can appear on one bureau’s file but not the other. Credit Karma’s daily monitoring alerts are particularly useful if you suspect ongoing fraud, since they notify you of new accounts and hard inquiries in real time. Contact both Equifax and TransUnion directly to place a fraud alert on your files, which makes it harder for someone to open new credit in your name. You can also escalate to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada if either bureau does not respond appropriately to your dispute.
Building credit from scratch is one of the most common financial challenges for newcomers. Start with a secured credit card — you provide a deposit that becomes your limit, and every on-time payment builds a record. Some banks offer newcomer-specific credit card programs that do not require an existing credit history. Borrowell’s Rent Advantage program is worth looking at if you are renting, since it reports your monthly rent to Equifax as a form of payment history. Even a thin credit file is better than none, and a year of responsible use can move you from no score to a good one.
Borrowell or Credit Karma takes about five minutes to sign up, requires only your email address, and gives you your score immediately. There is no catch and no credit card required. Pick one, check your number, and bookmark it for a quarterly revisit. If you are a customer of Scotiabank, RBC, TD, or CIBC, your banking app may already show you a score with no new sign-up at all — check the financial tools or insights section of your bank’s mobile app first.
Pull your full credit report from both bureaus directly — not just a score summary from an app — and go through it line by line. The most common culprits are: a missed payment that you forgot about or that was applied incorrectly, a credit card balance that crept above 30 percent of your limit, a hard inquiry from a lender you don’t recall authorizing, or an error such as someone else’s account appearing on your file. Once you spot the issue, the fix is usually one of three things: dispute the error with the bureau, pay down balances, or simply let time work as older negative marks age and carry less weight.
Errors on credit reports are more common than most people expect. A 2025 survey found a meaningful percentage of Canadians who check their full reports discover at least one inaccuracy. Here is how to handle it.
- Accounts that are not yours — could indicate identity theft or a mixed file where another person’s information landed on your report.
- Incorrect payment status — a payment marked late that was made on time, or a balance shown as higher than it actually was at reporting time.
- Duplicate accounts — the same debt appearing twice, making your debt load appear higher than it is.
- Accounts that should have been removed — most negative items stay for six years in Canada; anything older than that should not be on your file.
- Wrong personal information — a different address, a slightly different name, or an incorrect date of birth can sometimes merge files or cause confusion.
- Equifax: Log into your Equifax account and use the online dispute portal. Alternatively, write to Equifax Canada Co., National Consumer Relations, P.O. Box 190, Station Jean-Talon, Montreal, QC H1S 2Z2. Include documentation supporting your claim — a payment receipt, account statement, or letter from the creditor.
- TransUnion: Use the dispute portal at transunion.ca or write to TransUnion Consumer Relations Department, P.O. Box 338, LCD1, Hamilton, ON L8L 7W2. Include the same type of supporting documentation.
- Both bureaus investigate by contacting the lender or data furnisher that reported the information. This process typically takes about 30 days.
- Escalate to the FCAC if the bureau does not resolve your dispute properly. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada can be reached through canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency.
If the bureau corrects or removes an item, you are entitled to a fresh copy of your updated report. The correction typically appears in your next report cycle. If the removed item was significantly affecting your score — particularly a large collection account or a misreported missed payment — you may see a noticeable score improvement within one to two months. Keep a copy of your dispute correspondence and the bureau’s response for your records.
Not always. Apps like Borrowell and Credit Karma do not require your SIN to set up a free account and view your score — you provide your name, address, date of birth, and email. When you request your free consumer disclosure directly from Equifax or TransUnion online, they ask identity verification questions drawn from your own credit file, which can also work without providing your SIN. If you use the mail-in option, the bureaus typically ask for two pieces of government-issued identification rather than your SIN specifically. If you are concerned about privacy, the app-based route is the lowest-friction option.
Most negative items — late payments, collections, and settled debts — stay on your report for six years from the date of the last activity in most provinces. Bankruptcies stay longer: typically six years after discharge for a first bankruptcy, and 14 years for a second. Hard inquiries from lenders typically remain for two to three years but have less impact on your score after about 12 months. Positive account history stays as long as the account is open and often for several years after it closes, which is part of why keeping older accounts open tends to help your score.
Not necessarily — and this is a common source of confusion. Lenders often use different scoring models than the consumer-facing ones shown by free apps. Many Canadian lenders use FICO scores, which are calculated differently from the Equifax Risk Score or TransUnion CreditVision scores shown in free apps. Your score may appear slightly different depending on which model is used, but the underlying credit data is the same. If your free app shows 730, a lender using a different model might calculate 715 or 745 from the same file. The directional accuracy is reliable — if your free score is improving, your lending profile is also improving.
It can, for two reasons. First, closing a card reduces your total available credit, which increases your credit utilization ratio if you carry any balances on other cards. Second, if it was one of your older accounts, losing that account history can shorten your average credit age. The effect is usually temporary and modest for most people — but if you are about to apply for a mortgage or major loan, this is not the time to close cards. If you want to reduce the number of cards you carry, pay off the balance, keep it open at zero, and revisit closing it after your application is approved.
Your credit report follows you across provinces — it is national, not provincial. Moving does not reset or change your credit history in any way. You should update your address with your creditors after moving so your file reflects your current address, since a mismatch between what a lender has on file and what appears on your credit report can occasionally slow down approval processes. When you update your address with Equifax or TransUnion directly through your account, that also helps keep your file accurate.
Especially then, yes. Retirees and seniors are disproportionately targeted by identity fraud precisely because established credit files with no new activity can go unmonitored for long periods. A fraudster can open a new account in your name and run up a balance without you noticing for months if you are not checking. Setting up a free account with Borrowell and Credit Karma — which send automated alerts when anything changes on your file — takes less than ten minutes and provides year-round monitoring at no cost. A quarterly check of your full bureau reports is also a straightforward habit that can catch problems early.
This page provides general information about credit reports and credit monitoring services in Canada and is intended for educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial or legal advice. Credit bureau processes, service features, and score models can change; always verify current details directly with Equifax Canada, TransUnion Canada, or the specific service you plan to use. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) maintains official guidance on credit reports and your rights at canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency. If you have a dispute with a financial institution, the FCAC can be a resource for escalation.