How to Get a Free Credit Report
Due to recent federal legislation, it is no longer necessary to pay to get a copy of your credit report. Almost any consumer may get a copy of their credit report for free, once each year, from each of the three credit reporting agencies. At present, this service is only available to residents of Western and Mid-west states. By September it will be available throughout the United States.
This free report can be requested through a web site that was specifically created for this purpose, as mandated by Congress: https://www.annualcreditreport.com
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Please Note: Through the above link, you can get a credit report that is truely free. You will not have to pay for this credit check in any way. This is not a “free trial offer”. You will not have to cancel at a later date. It really is totally free. There are dozens of other sites that seem to promise a free credit report, but read the fine print, they are probably not really free.
Please note that they do go to quite some lengths to veryfy your identity, and that is a good thing.
You may also request your free credit reports by phone at 1-877-322-8228 , or by mail at the following address:
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Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
(But first download the required mail-in request form HERE)
We suggest that you consult the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on the above web site for further information.
Please note that if you in a hurry, it is best to complete this request online. You will be able to download and print out your credit report in minutes. And although you only get one report per agency per year, you can stagger the requested reports between the three agencies, and therefore effectively get more frequent reports than once per year.
Checking your credit report for signs of identity theft is highly recommended. It is also a good idea to check your credit report for accuracy. You may wish to challenge any erroneous data.
Also please note that the above web site is secured and encrypted by SSL.
- Verify this by looking for the Lock symbol in the lower bar of you browser window.
- Also verify this by checking the web address of any secure site, as seen in the address bar of you browser. A secure site should always start with https:// . A non-secure site will not have the letter (s) following the http. Non-secure site addresses start with http:// .
Always verify that you are on a secure site when accessing your bank account or other online financial accounts such as PayPal. The payment page of any online shopping site should also begin with https: . Never enter account information and/or credit card numbers in a non-secure web page.
- Practice Safe Computing -
June 5th, 2005 at 2:18 PM
UPDATE: Residents of most Southern and Southeastern states can now also participate in this Federally mandated free credit report offer.
And by the way, this is not a scam.
And also by the way, most any other “free credit report” offer is a scam.
This is the one and only official site that was set up by Federal legislation called the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
https://www.annualcreditreport.com
For more information, please visit the following Federal Trade Commission site.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm
November 2nd, 2005 at 9:44 AM
Very informative article. Even though there are a lot of hoax free credit report sites out there, there are still many reputable free credit report sites. For instance, I got my free credit report at credit-report-credit-score dot com with no problem and no scams. I just thought that I would share my free credit report story that turned out to be a positive experience to let everyone know that there are still good and honest businesses out there on the web.
November 2nd, 2005 at 11:01 AM
Please note: The web address in the above post take you to a credit report broker that seeks to charge high fees for a credit report that you can get for free.
To their ‘credit’ the fees are clearly displayed on the ‘sign up pages’.
That doesn’t sound like ‘free’ to us. There is absolutely no need to go through this hassle just to get a credit report Why expose yourself to the possibility of being charged high fees for what you can get really get for free at
https://www.annualcreditreport.com .
We have to admit that the web site mentioned in the above Post appears to be “honest”. They do mention the fees, after all. They may offer ‘value added’ services that may be useful. But these ‘extra services and benefits’ are vaguely described, so comparison shopping before you buy is difficult.
But we suggest that consumers get a “really free with not strings attached” report from annualcreditreport.com. And if you need additional services, such as monitoring, get them direct from the credit reporting agencies, not through a third party credit report broker.