How Do You Obtain Free Credit Reports?
When we speak of a credit report, how many of us actually know what a credit report really is? In reality, a credit report is a report that contains information on where you are living, how you pay your bills and make payments, whether you have had a criminal record before (in terms of being sued or being arrested, etc), whether you have ever filed for bankruptcy before, and other relevant information.
Your credit report is an extremely important tool that is used to evaluate your financial condition, especially when you apply for loans, insurance, employment or even when you look to rent a home. Consumer reporting organizations actually sell your credit reports to companies such as insurers, banks, creditors as well as employers when the need arises, especially when they need to analyse your financial situation.
Your application for loans is primarily evaluated based on your credit score, so make sure that you take good care of your credit score!
Wondering where you could get your own credit report? Well, good news for you! The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) makes it a must for each one of the national consumer reporting companies (that comprises of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to grant you a free credit report when your request for it, once every twelve months.
If you need another report within the twelve month grace period, you would be charged USD 10.50 each time you request for your credit report within the 1 year period. Each of these three organizations is reachable at:
- Equifax: 1-800-685-1111
- Experian: 1-888-397-3742
- TransUnion: 1-800-916-8800
Nevertheless, you can only get your free credit report by visiting the centralized website that has been created by these three companies called AnnualCreditReport.com.
Here, you can find an Annual Credit Report Request Form which once completed, should be mailed to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service,
P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta,
GA 30348-5281.
Or you could also call 1-877-322-8228 to gain more information about this process if you are unsure.
Calling each company individually and requesting for your credit report would not work, as you would be directed to the central site that has been created solely to provide citizens with their credit reports when required.
The FCRA tries to ensure that your credit reports are as accurate and private as possible, and is governed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Remember that the only site legitimate in providing your free credit report to you is annualcreditreport.com, although many other sites would offer you the same free credit reports.
These imposter sites are illegal, and should be avoided at all costs. Some of them may appear to be free, but might charge you some processing fees say after six months. Better be safe than sorry, thus stick to annualcreditreport.com and obtain your free credit report every year safely.
There is a segment of the FTC monitoring such spam and imposter sites, if you receive any suspicious looking emails requesting personal information in regards to credit reports, forward the email to spam@uce.gov.
You would need to provide certain information such as you name, address, date of birth as well as Social Security number to have your credit report processed. Once you send in a request to AnnualCreditReport.com, you should normally receive your credit report within 15 days.
If there are complications with your request, the waiting period might be slightly longer however. Good luck with your application, and make sure that you get your free report every year without fail.