How to get a free credit score

This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller.

Over the years, readers have asked me how to get their credit score without a credit card. What they want to avoid is signing up for a free trial of a credit-monitoring service to get their score and then having to cancel the service to avoid being charged. And in some cases, folks don't have credit cards to begin with.

There are several ways to get your free credit score without a credit card. We'll cover them below, but first let's talk about getting your free credit report. Post continues after video.

Remember that a credit score and credit report are different. A credit report lists information about you and your credit history, such as what loans and credit cards you have, and your payment history. By federal law, you can get your credit report for no charge through AnnualCreditReport.com. But the report you get doesn't include your credit score.

• Bing:Financial reform and free credit scores

To get your credit score, you basically have three options:

• Buy it. If you just want to buy your official FICO score and be done with it, myFICO is the answer. MyFICO is run by Fair Isaac Corp., which created the FICO credit-scoring model. Through myFICO, you can buy your credit score for a one-time fee.
• Free trial. Several companies offer your credit score for free when you sign up for a trial of their credit-monitoring services. My personal favorite is Identity Guard, which I've found to be very easy to use, and it offers tools to help improve your score. Other options include creditreport.com, Equifax, and zendough by TransUnion.
• Scores without cards. The third way to get your free credit score is through services that offer scores for free with no credit card required. What's the catch? We'll look at the two primary services --  Credit Karma and Quizzle -- but there really is no catch. They make money through advertisements on their sites, but we haven't found that to be a problem. The scores are not official FICO scores, but we'll talk about that below

Credit Karma. Credit Karma provides you with a credit report card (not credit report) and your credit score as calculated by TransUnion. One of the nice features is that the report card explains those factors that are either helping or hurting your credit score. No credit card is required and you don't have to sign up for a free trial. For more details, you can check out our Credit Karma review.

Quizzle. Quizzle provides a service similar to Credit Karma, except that the credit score comes from Experian. In addition to your credit score, Quizzle provides a budget tool and helps you track and build an emergency fund. You can get more details in our Quizzle review.

FICO score vs. other scores

As noted above, Credit Karma and Quizzle do not provide FICO credit scores. The scores are derived from credit information on file with two major credit agencies, but they do not use the FICO formula. The reason has to do with licensing the formula from Fair Isaac.

• Calculate your credit score in minutes

That said, the scores do provide a good indication of your credit score and how to improve it. And it's hard to do better than free. Even if you want your official FICO score through myFICO, it's worth checking out the credit tools and scores from Credit Karma or Quizzle.

More from The Dough Roller and MSN Money:

• What is a good credit score?
• The best low-interest credit cards
• OptionsXpress review
• Some people can't get credit? Good!
• Credit bureau move creates 'secret' scores
• 7 fast fixes for your credit scores