So About Free Credit Reports
Originally published at View this post on my blog. Please leave any comments there.
What with applying for my first apartment, I took a sudden interest in my credit history and decided to request a free credit report. I had to do some research, and did come across a couple of mishaps before finally finding something good. Since knowing what's in your credit history is useful to just about anybody, I decided to write this post to (hopefully) help others out.
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Don't mess with FreeCreditReport.com
Yes, the commercials are funny, but don't. There is a catch in which, when you request your free credit report, you are automatically enrolled into a trial version of TripleAdvantage credit monitoring service -- this will cost you $14.95/month if you don't cancel within 7 days. The ONLY way to cancel is by phone (all email and postal requests will be ignored). If you decide to go ahead with it anyway, the toll-free number to cancel is (877) 481-6826.
But if you are a US citizen, there is a far better and completely free and no-strings-attached option available:
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AnnualCreditReport.com
AnnualCreditReport.com is officially backed by the Federal Trade Commission and is run by the three major credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experion, and TransUnion. Under federal law, you are entitled to request and receive a free credit report once every 12 months with no fees and no strings attached. AnnualCreditReport.com is the only site where you can get that report. You can get one from each of the three companies. Experion owns FreeCreditReport.com anyway, so you'd get the same report you would've gotten from FreeCreditReport.com in addition to two others. It's all completely free.
The credit reports show you any cards that you have or have had in your name, as well as any mortgages, loans, etc. etc. They also show you who has requested a credit report on you. You might think there shouldn't be any companies listed there, but there probably are.
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Even if you are certain that there should be nothing bad or even nothing at all in your credit history, you should still check it out. Mistakes can be made, and there can be some damning inaccuracies that you won't be aware of until you apply for a loan, or go to buy a car, or look for an apartment, etc. etc. and they reject you on account of bad credit that isn't even yours.
So there you have it. How to get a your free credit report without any pain or BS. Again, I share this knowledge with you only to spare you from some of the BS and hassle I had to put up with (because I went to FreeCreditReport before finding out about Annual Credit Report). Hope you enjoy!