M&T Bank offers credit scores for $2.99 a month

NEW YORK — Need to check your credit score? Sign on to your bank account. M&T Bank, which has branches primarily on the East Coast, is offering its online banking customers their FICO scores for $2.99 a month. Here’s how it works:

The bank says customers with any type of checking or savings account can sign up for the service, as long as they’ve set up online banking. The credit score is updated once a month and is provided by Equifax, one of the three national credit bureaus.

The score is accessible whenever customers sign on to their accounts online. If there’s a change in the score, customers are told the two main factors that contributed to the fluctuation. The page displaying the FICO score will also have offers to sign up for credit monitoring services from Equifax. Those services would be provided separately through the credit bureau, unlike the score which is available directly from M&T.

There’s no obligation to stay enrolled in M&T’s credit score service. So a customer could sign up to get their score for just one month.

The $2.99 price tag should sound like a bargain to anyone who recently paid for his or her FICO score. The three credit bureaus sell score packages and monitoring services for much more. Consumers can also get their scores for a one-time fee of $19.95 from www.myfico.com.

As with most other banks, it should be noted that M&T’s checking accounts can come with fees. The bank’s website lists seven different types of checking accounts, one of which is free with no strings attached. The monthly fees on most the other accounts may be waived as long as customers meet certain conditions, such a minimum balance requirements.

M&T has 780 branches primarily in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C. To see if there’s an M & T Bank near you, go to www.mtb.com.