This article was initially published in the Jul-Sep ’09 newsletter and has since been revised and republished in the Jul-Sep ’11 newsletter.
There are advertisements that advertise a “FREE” credit report and then charge you for various services. If you have to provide your credit card number to obtain your credit report, it is probably not going to end up being free. My understanding is that the only place where you can actually get a free credit report is through AnnualCreditReport.com. The site is supported by the three credit reporting bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You are entitled to get one free credit report from each of the three credit reporting bureaus each year.
You can request a free report by phone by calling 1-877-322-8228 and going through a simple verification process over the phone. Or, you can request that it be mailed to you by completing a request form that you can download from the website and then mailing it to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Or, you can go to AnnualCreditReport.com and obtain your report online. Without providing a credit card number, I got my 19-page Experian report within a few minutes. The three reports don’t necessarily agree, so had I been interested in applying for a mortgage, I would have pulled up all three of them.
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Obtaining Free Credit Reports
This article was initially published in the Jul-Sep ’09 newsletter and has since been revised and republished in the Jul-Sep ’11 newsletter.
There are advertisements that advertise a “FREE” credit report and then charge you for various services. If you have to provide your credit card number to obtain your credit report, it is probably not going to end up being free. My understanding is that the only place where you can actually get a free credit report is through AnnualCreditReport.com. The site is supported by the three credit reporting bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You are entitled to get one free credit report from each of the three credit reporting bureaus each year.
You can request a free report by phone by calling 1-877-322-8228 and going through a simple verification process over the phone. Or, you can request that it be mailed to you by completing a request form that you can download from the website and then mailing it to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Or, you can go to AnnualCreditReport.com and obtain your report online. Without providing a credit card number, I got my 19-page Experian report within a few minutes. The three reports don’t necessarily agree, so had I been interested in applying for a mortgage, I would have pulled up all three of them.
Back to Useful Newsletter Articles