You are entitled to a free credit file disclosure (credit report) once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
You may request your free credit reports online at www.annualcreditreport.com. You will be asked questions to authenticate your identity such as creditor names, loan payment amounts, employers and addresses. Please work through the screens, then view and print out all three credit reports. You’ll need lots of paper and ink.
Other Internet sites advertising “free” credit reports are not free. If you have to give a credit card number or sign up for a monthly credit monitoring service, you are on the wrong website.
If you cannot obtain your free credit reports online, you may request your report by phone or request your report through the mail. Free credit reports requested by phone or mail will be processed within 15 days of receiving your request.
To request your credit report by phone, call 1-877-322-8228. You will go through a simple verification process over the phone. Your reports will be mailed to you within 15 days.
To request you credit report by mail, download the request form, print and complete the form, mail the completed form to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.
If you have credit reports printed out, bring what you can to your appointment. We recommend that you run one of the three free reports every four months so that you may monitor your credit reports for free. Don’t be alarmed if you cannot get all three reports online, call and ask for them by mail. With your written permission, we will run your credit reports through our vendor, which downloads the data from Experian and Transunion to our software. The charge for the download is $26 for one person or $45 for a married couple.
Free credit reports do not contain your credit scores. You can estimate your credit score for free, instantly and anonymously, by using a web tool, Credit Score Compass, on the credit.com website.
