The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday fined two of the largest U.S. credit reporting agencies, TransUnion and Equifax and their subsidiaries, for “deceiving consumers” about how useful the credit scores are that they have sold to them.

The agencies also charged customers unfairly, the CFPB said; although in advertisements consumers were told their credit scores and credit-related products would be free or just $1, consumers started to be charged a recurring fee of $16 or more a month if they didn’t cancel their free trials.

TransUnion TRU, +0.74% and Equifax EFX, -0.69% between them must pay about $17.6 million in restitution to customers and another $5.5 million in fines to the CFPB.

“We continue to believe that our consumer marketing has been clear and has complied with the law and other government guidance,” a spokesman for TransUnion said in an email. “However, we are committed to making improvements to our consumer experience, and over the past several months we have worked cooperatively with the CFPB. … We have agreed to fund a generous program to fully compensate any consumer who may not have understood his or her trial program would convert to a subscription.”

“The CFPB’s investigation into these matters has been ongoing for nearly three years, and Equifax implemented changes addressing the CFPB’s concerns shortly after the investigation began,” said a spokeswoman for Equifax in an email. “While Equifax does not believe it has violated any laws and has not admitted any liability, Equifax determined it was in its best interest to resolve the matter with the CFPB.”

How credit scores predict what you will buy next

What consumers should know

Besides charging consumers on a recurring basis (a complaint consumers have filed against other individuals and corporations as well recently, including Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and many subscription-based retailers), the credit reporting agencies led consumers to believe their scores would be the same scores lenders would use to evaluate their creditworthiness, the CFPB said.

In reality, lenders don’t use a single credit score or credit score model to determine whether a customer is creditworthy; many banks and other lenders develop their own scoring systems, often using a credit reporting agency’s score for only part of their calculation, whether that is a “VantageScore” or a Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) score.

(One exception to this scoring system is applying for a mortgage; agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac explicitly say which score they will use to determine creditworthiness, said Nick Clements, the co-founder of personal finance company MagnifyMoney, who previously worked in the credit industry, including as a director of risk management at Citi.)

When consumers check their credit scores online or through their banks or credit card companies, they should look at what range their score is in to get a general sense of where they stand, but not assume it is a guarantee that a certain bank or other lender will find them creditworthy, Clements said.

How to check your score

Despite the CFPB’s ruling, checking one’s credit score through a credit reporting agency, bank or credit-card issuer is still a good idea, as long as consumers understand what that score means, Clements said.

Although in the past, finding out one’s credit score was rarely free and often a more difficult process, the founding of companies such as Credit Karma (founded in 2007) that allow customers to check their scores for free, plus the CFPB’s calling on major credit card companies to make credit scores available to consumers starting in 2014, has created more transparency.

Because there are so many free options, consumers should never pay to check their credit scores, Clements said.

Consumers are able to get a free copy of their credit reports every 12 months from each credit reporting company (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian) by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com.

Many banks and credit cards also allow consumers to check their scores for free (as of December 2015, more than 100 million credit card accounts offer consumers free access, the CFPB found).