Free Credit Check

Information On Free Credit Checks

An amendment to the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) entitles you to receive a free credit report once every 12 months, from each of the main credit reporting bureaus-Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Why would you want to take advantage of a free credit report?

Nationwide consumer reporting companies routinely sell the information gleaned from your credit report to creditors, insurers, even employers and other businesses. They use this information to evaluate your credit worthiness and decide whether they will then extend you a credit line, approve your rental application or even offer you employment. With all these establishments looking at your credit shouldn’t you be looking too?

What information is on your credit report?

Your credit report tells others where you live, how you pay your bills, whether you have been successfully sued, have any judgments against you, are in open collections, whether you have been arrested or if you have filed for bankruptcy. It shows you what your creditors say about you and if anyone has been requesting or using your credit without your knowledge.

How do you order your free credit report?

You can go to one central website, call one toll-free number or write a letter to one mailing address to request your free annual credit report from all three nationwide consumer reporting agencies. Go to or click on annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to:

Annual Credit Request Service

P.O. Box 105281

Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

If you try to contact each of the three bureaus directly you will have to pay for any requested report. The free credit reports are available only through the above listed company. You can choose to order one free report or all three but only one from each in any 12 month period.

Have you been asked to pay a fee from other sites offering ‘free’ reports?

Any other website offering free credit reports are considered imposters since the site listed above is the only one authorized to provide free annual credit reports under the new law. These other sites might try to charge a small fee or offer a free service that is truly only offered for a trial period which then reverts to a charge that you must remember to cancel. Some sites even use the name of annualcreditreport.com but with slight misspellings.

The real site will not send you any emails asking for personal information nor have pop up ads on their website. If you should receive such an email or pop up don’t click on the accompanying link. You can forward these types of email scams to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.

Be ready to provide the following information when requesting your free annual credit report:

Name
Address (if you have moved in the last two years you may need to provide your prior address as well)
Social Security number
Date of birth

You will then be asked a qualifying question such as your monthly mortgage amount or other personal information such as your prior billing address etc.-something only you would know.

The following are just some of the reasons you should check your credit every 12 months:

Verify that your information is accurate, complete and up-to-date (this is critical if you are applying for a loan or employment)
Help prevent identity theft