Somewhere in Vauxhall, London, a company that offers its core service to every user for free is closing in on 26 million users worldwide.
That's the strange trick at the heart of ClearScore's story, a free credit-checking app that Experian once tried to buy for £275 million, only for a Competition and Markets Authority investigation to see the deal abandoned before it ever closed.
What's left is a business that shouldn't really work on paper, and does. Here's how does ClearScore make money and how a failed takeover in 2019 coincided with the making of it.
Commission From Lender Partners, Not From Users
ClearScore makes money primarily by earning commission from the lenders; it refers users to either a flat fee when someone takes out a product, or a smaller fee simply for clicking through to a partner's site. The core credit-score and credit-report service costs nothing to use, though ClearScore also sells an optional paid add-on, Protect Plus, for those who want daily dark-web scanning rather than the free quarterly check.
Is ClearScore free isn't really the interesting question anymore how the core product stays free, at this scale, is. Experian tried to buy that formula for £275 million, and the deal was abandoned after the UK's competition regulator raised serious concerns. What survived that near-miss is now one of the more instructive examples of the ClearScore business model in UK fintech: a free core marketplace, funded primarily by commissions from lenders, with a small optional subscription layered on top.
ClearScore says it never ranks the credit cards, loans, and car finance offers it shows users based on how much commission a lender pays. Recommendations are built from the user's own credit report and personalised to their financial situation, a stated policy the company treats as central to trust, and one worth returning to later in this piece.
Is ClearScore actually free?
ClearScore's core credit-score and credit-report service is free, with no cost to check a score or report, at any point, as often as a user likes. That's the entire premise the ClearScore business model is built on though it isn't the company's only revenue line, since an optional Protect Plus subscription (£7.99 a month or £59.99 a year) sits alongside it for users who want enhanced identity monitoring.
Anyone asking is ClearScore free usually wants to know where the catch is on the core product. The credit check itself costs nothing. ClearScore sources its credit data from Equifax, one of the UK's three main credit reference agencies, and today displays a score on Equifax's own 0–1,000 scale. The company was incorporated as Clear Score Technology Limited in September 2014 before launching publicly in 2015, building its name on the promise of "free, forever" for the core product. The mechanics behind how ClearScore makes money from that free core service while running a small paid add-on alongside it are exactly what the next section unpacks.
Flat fees vs click-through fees explained
ClearScore earns revenue through several commission structures: a flat fee paid when a user takes out a credit product, a fee that scales with how much a user borrows or spends, a fee tied to how many applications a lender converts, and a smaller fee paid simply for clicking through to a lender's site even if that user never applies.
Per ClearScore's own explanation of how it earns money, some of these fees shrink as a lender's conversion rate improves, a deliberate incentive to push lenders toward making it easier to become a customer.
That commission engine is the clearest illustration of the ClearScore business model in practice, and the practical answer to how ClearScore makes money on its core marketplace day to day. ClearScore also holds commercial agreements to advertise products from lenders outside its normal search results deals it labels "sponsored," a transparency point that matters more once you get to the safety question later on.
The blocked Experian acquisition
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority raised serious competition concerns over Experian's proposed £275 million acquisition of ClearScore, prompting both companies to abandon the deal in February 2019. It's one of the most consequential events in the company's history and part of the reason ClearScore remained an independent company.
In March 2018, Experian announced plans to buy ClearScore outright. At the time, ClearScore had around six million users and had disclosed roughly $15.6 million in prior funding, according to TechCrunch and PitchBook, from investors including QED Investors, Lead Edge Capital, Blenheim Chalcott and Brightbridge Ventures. On paper, it looked like a natural exit.
Then the CMA opened a Phase 2 merger inquiry. In November 2018, it published provisional findings warning the merger "could stifle product development... and so negatively impact consumers." The CMA described Experian and ClearScore as two of the largest credit-score checking firms in the UK, and its concern was that folding one into the other would strip away the competitive pressure driving innovation in both free and paid credit services.
Experian read the room. On 27 February 2019, it formally abandoned the deal, stating it did "not believe that the CMA will approve the proposed acquisition of ClearScore on satisfactory terms." The CMA confirmed the cancellation of its investigation the same day, on the basis that the transaction had been abandoned. ClearScore stayed independent.
Expanding into mortgages via the Acre acquisition
ClearScore expanded into mortgages in January 2026 by acquiring Acre Platforms, a London-based mortgage technology provider with 47 staff, for an undisclosed sum. It's the kind of move a company makes once it's confident enough in its core business to bet on something adjacent.
The deal followed ClearScore's move into secured loans a year earlier, through its acquisition of Aro Finance, and gives the 16 million UK users on ClearScore's platform a direct route into Acre's broker ecosystem. CEO Justin Basini called it a natural extension: "Acre is a great addition to the ClearScore Group... ClearScore brings the brand, the reach, the user-permissioned data at scale and one of the most advanced, reliable and unique fintech stacks in the industry."
The plan is to eventually extend Acre's technology into ClearScore's international markets South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
The financial weight behind that ambition showed up in July 2026, when ClearScore Group reported FY2025 revenue of £144.7 million, up 37% year on year, with adjusted EBITDA more than doubling to £17.1 million. The Group now counts over 25 million users globally, a scale that makes the answer to how ClearScore makes money considerably bigger than it looked back in 2018, when Experian first came knocking.
Is ClearScore safe? Why sponsored listings are labelled separately
ClearScore is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference number 654446, and it labels any commercial arrangement to promote a lender's product outside its standard search results as "sponsored" keeping paid placements visibly separate from the recommendations it says are ranked purely on fit, not fee. ClearScore also recommends enabling two-factor authentication on the account for an added layer of protection, though it isn't compulsory.
ClearScore reviews on Trustpilot currently sit at 4.5 out of 5, rated "Excellent," from over 32,000 reviews, with 81% five-star. Praise clusters around ease of use and responsive customer service; recurring complaints skew toward excessive promotional emails and occasional lag between real-world changes and what the app shows. A strong review score reflects user sentiment rather than proof of financial safety on its own but combined with FCA authorisation and a stated no-ranking-by-commission policy, it's a reasonable picture of a well-regulated, broadly trusted marketplace.
FAQs
1. Is ClearScore safe?
ClearScore is an FCA-authorised and regulated credit broker (FRN 654446). It says it does not rank offers according to commission earned, labels sponsored products separately, and recommends two-factor authentication to protect user accounts. As with any financial service, users should still review individual product terms before applying.
2. What's the difference between ClearScore and Experian?
ClearScore and Experian are separate, competing UK credit-checking services that nearly merged in 2018 before the deal was abandoned in 2019 following CMA concerns. ClearScore uses Equifax data on a 0–1,000 scale; Experian uses its own data on a 0–1,250 scale, expanded from 0–999 in a 2025–2026 rollout. Both offer free credit-score access.
3. What's the difference between ClearScore and Credit Karma?ClearScore and Credit Karma both offer free UK credit checks but draw on different bureaus — ClearScore uses Equifax data, while Credit Karma UK (formerly Noddle, now owned by Intuit) uses TransUnion data. Both operate a free-to-consumer model funded by financial-product referral commissions.
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Sources: Figures and quotes drawn from ClearScore's own terms, help centre, and press releases, ClearScore Group's July 2026 full-year results announcement, the Competition and Markets Authority's official Notice of Cancellation (February 2019), Companies House incorporation records, Experian's own scoring-update announcements, and Trustpilot's live review data at the time of writing.
The EP+ Editorial Desk covers UK startups, founder stories, and venture capital. All editorial content is independently produced and human-reviewed before publication.
