For years, Canadians had to pay $20 to $30 per month to monitor their credit scores. Then Borrowell and Credit Karma entered the Canadian market and changed the equation entirely. Today, every Canadian can check their credit score for free, weekly, with no credit card required and no hidden charges. Here is every option available in 2025.
Borrowell is a Canadian fintech company that provides free weekly credit score updates from Equifax Canada. Registration takes about five minutes — you need your SIN (Social Insurance Number) to verify your identity. There is no credit card required and no paid tier required to see your score.
Beyond the score itself, Borrowell provides a detailed breakdown of the five factors affecting your score, month-over-month score changes, and recommendations for credit products that match your credit profile. The factor breakdown is genuinely useful — it tells you specifically whether your score is being held back by utilization, account age, payment history, or something else, allowing you to focus improvement efforts.
Borrowell also provides free credit report monitoring and will alert you if new accounts or inquiries appear on your Equifax report — an early warning system for identity theft or fraud.
Credit Karma Canada provides free weekly credit score updates from TransUnion Canada. Like Borrowell, registration is free and requires SIN verification. Credit Karma also provides factor analysis, credit recommendations, and fraud alerts for new activity on your TransUnion report.
Because Credit Karma uses TransUnion data and Borrowell uses Equifax data, using both services together gives you a complete picture of your credit health across both bureaus. Since scores at the two bureaus can differ meaningfully, monitoring both is recommended — especially before a major credit application like a mortgage.
Several major Canadian banks now offer integrated credit score monitoring within their mobile banking apps:
The bank-integrated scores are convenient because you see them alongside your banking transactions, but they update less frequently than Borrowell or Credit Karma (monthly vs. weekly) and provide less detail about contributing factors.
This is the most common credit myth in Canada. Checking your own credit score through any of the services above generates a soft inquiry — it does not appear on the version of your credit report that lenders see and does not affect your score in any way. You can check your score every day through Borrowell and Credit Karma without any impact.
Hard inquiries — which do temporarily lower your score by a few points — only occur when a lender checks your credit as part of a formal application for credit (mortgage, car loan, credit card). There is no hard inquiry when you check your own score.
The scores you see on Borrowell and Credit Karma are consumer-facing educational scores that are based on your credit data but may use slightly different scoring models than what a specific lender uses. The numbers are directionally accurate — a 700 on Credit Karma likely corresponds to a score in the same general range from a lender's model — but the exact number may differ.
Different lenders also use different scoring versions. Mortgage lenders typically use older FICO versions. Credit card issuers may use newer models. Auto lenders have industry-specific scores. What matters is the underlying data — payment history, utilization, account age — not the precise number on your consumer monitoring app.
Your free credit score shows the numerical output. Your full credit report shows the underlying data — every account, balance, payment history, inquiry, and public record. You should review your full credit report at least once per year to check for errors or fraudulent accounts.
In Canada, you are entitled to a free copy of your full credit report from both Equifax and TransUnion by mail once per year. You can also request an online copy for a fee directly from their websites. Borrowell and Credit Karma show portions of your report data through their apps, but for a complete report, the direct bureau request is most thorough.
One of the most valuable aspects of free credit monitoring is the fraud alert feature. Borrowell and Credit Karma both notify you when a new hard inquiry appears on your report — meaning someone has applied for credit in your name. If you did not make that application, it may indicate identity theft. Early detection through these free services can prevent significant damage to your credit file and finances.
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