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Where Can I Get My Free Credit Report?
by Brandon Cornett, 1/6/09
Does this scenario sound familiar? You see a commercial on television about your free credit report, and how important it is to review your report once a year. So you go online to the website mentioned in the commercial, and they want you to sign up for something in order to gain access to the free report they promised you in the commercial. Hey, what gives?
A lot of people are confused and frustrated by this scenario. But it's really a matter of fine print. The next time you see one of those commercials that offer your free credit report online, look for the small print at the bottom of your TV set. It will say something like: "When you sign up for our credit monitoring service."
So the next logical question is: Where can I get my free credit report with no strings attached? Well, I'm going to tell you. All you have to do is visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com. This is the only website recommended by the FTC, the federal agency that regulated the world of credit reporting.
Free Credit Reports - It's the Law
Did you know there's actually a federal law that entitles you to one free credit report per year, from all three of the companies that produce them? It's true. The law is called the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and it's enforced by the Federal Trace Commission (FTC), mentioned above. This piece of legislation has been around since 1960, and it was last updated in 2003. That's when consumers like us got the right to one free credit report per year, from all of the credit reporting bureaus (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax).
The 2003 ammendment also directed these three companies to create a joint website where consumers can get all three of their reports at once. This is the website mentioned above — www.AnnualCreditReport.com. You can get your free credit information by visiting the website and clicking the "request report" button on the home page. Then just provide the information requested, and you're all set.
So now you where you can get your free credit report online with no strings attached, by visiting the only website regulated and recommended by the federal government. Once you receive your information, read through it for accuracy. If you find any credit accounts that are not yours, you can dispute it through the website of the company that produced the erroneous report. It's possible to have an error in one report but not in the other two, because all three companies collect data separately from one another.
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* Copyright 2008, Brandon Cornett.
About the Author: Brandon Cornett publishes a number of educational websites for consumers. He is the creator of this real estate information website as well as the Home Buying Institute.
