Get Your Absolutely Free Credit Report With No Strings Attached From Annualcreditreport.com
In a society driven more and more by the availability of credit, it’s more important than ever to monitor your credit report to make certain your credit-worthiness isn’t affected by false information. Unfortunately, some less-than-reputable companies have made a very good living taking advantage of consumers’ desire to monitor their credit report by selling over-priced credit-monitoring subscriptions under the guise of giving you free access to your credit report (freecreditreport.com anyone?).
Suffice it to say any “free” offer requiring you to provide a credit card is probably a scam. Fortunately for consumers, there exists a government-mandated website dedicated to providing consumers with an absolutely free credit report, annualcreditreport.com.
Absolutely Free Credit Report, No Strings Attached
In my opinion, the vast majority of offers out there promising an “absolutely free credit report” are at best misleading, and at worst a scam. You can bet they will try their hardest to extract money from you somehow: how else could they stay in business?
There is absolutely no need to pay to see the contents of your credit report. Period. By law, Annualcreditreport.com gives you one free annual credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. It doesn’t give you free access to your actual FICO credit score, unfortunately, but it does give you ample opportunity to review and correct any errors that may crop up. If you are contemplating a major purchase such as a home or car and really need to see your actual FICO score and not just the contents of your report, you can buy it for about $15 directly from myFICO.com
, which is run by Fair Issac, the company that actually invented the FICO score.
Since it’s estimated that up to 25% of all credit reports contain serious errors, it is highly advisable that you take advantage of this free service mandated by the government (while the government requires the credit bureaus provide you a free annual credit report, the website is run by the bureaus). What I personally do is check one of my reports every 4 months and rotate so that I get all of them once per year. So far, I haven’t noticed any mistakes, but better safe than sorry.
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Do you get your free credit report online or in the mail?
Terry, you get it online instantly.
Okay, I went to the site and read the FAQ. It says for verification you must provide your SSN (obviously) and then it will require you to “answer certain questions”. That’s kinda vague, what sort of questions are involved?
They are questions about information from your credit report to make sure you are who you say you are. Things like “what bank do you currently have a mortgage with” and “which of the following addresses have you lived at in the past?” Stuff only you would know.
I just finished a tutorial that explains the constant cat-and-mouse game between the FTC and the the reporting companies. This should clear things up for anyone who is confused:
http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/reports/
Hope that helps!
-Brandon