Can someone help - trying to file for free but it says I must use deluxe as there are lifetime learning credits but the return shows $0 for this credit.

If you don't qualify for the Lifetime Learning Credit,  or want to decline it,  you'll have to delete the forms that are related to education credits.

If you see form 8863 and form 1098-T, delete them. Click here for instructions

Education Credits are not included in the FREE version of TurboTax and you will need to upgrade to Deluxe.  If you are on the Free version, it will say that the credits are $0 because it cannot compute the credits.

You can claim the credit using Included with TurboTax Deluxe, Premier, Self-Employed, TurboTax Live, TurboTax Live Full Service

In order to qualify for the Lifetime Learning credit, you must have made tuition and fee payments to a post-secondary school (after high school) during the year.

• You can claim the credit for any post-secondary classes you take; you don't have to be working towards a degree. Some limitations do exist though.
• If you earn too much income during the year, you may not be eligible to claim the credit. However, this also depends on your filing status.