How To Get A Free Copy Of My Credit Report
The three nationwide credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) are required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to provide you with a free copy of your credit report on request once in every period of 12 months and this report can be requested online, by telephone or by mail. You may of course request copies of your report more than once in any 12 month period if you wish to do so but you will need to pay for additional reports and the procedure for obtaining them is not the same as that to followed to obtain your free annual copy.
To obtain your free annual report you should NOT contact the credit reporting companies directly but should either:
- Visit annualcreditreport.com which is a website set up by the three companies specifically to handle requests for free annual credit reports.
- Call 1-877-322-8228
- Complete an Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it in to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O.Box 105281
Atlanta
GA 30348-5281
WARNING: Only the website listed above is authorized to process requests for free annual copies of your credit report and you should not attempt to obtain your report from any other website. You will find that there are many websites offering 'free credit reports' or 'free credit scores' but such websites are not only not authorized to provide this information but many are scam operations which offer a seemingly free service but which are in fact setup to persuade you to purchase or trick you into purchasing other services.
In submitting your request you will need to provide your name, address, date of birth and social security number. In addition, if you have moved within the past two years you will need to provide details of your previous address. In addition, each credit reporting company may ask you for information which only you should know as an added security measure. This information will be something that is recorded on your credit file such as your current monthly mortgage payment or car loan payment.
When making your request you can order copies of your credit reports from all three agencies at the same time or may choose to receive a report from just one agency or reports from two of the three agencies. If you wish to compare the three reports then it is a good idea to obtain them all at the same time. However, bearing in mind that you can only request a report from each agency once a year, you may decide that a better option is to spread your requests out so that you can track your credit file effectively every four months. The choice is of course entirely yours to make.
If you make your request online then you will normally receive a copy of your credit report instantly, unless the credit bureaus require additional security information, in which case there may be a delay while this information is obtained and processed.
If your request is made by telephone or by mail you should normally expect to receive your report by mail in about 15 days. At times when the credit agencies are receiving an unusually high number of requests there may be a delay beyond 15 days and you will normally be informed of any possible delay.
Should you wish to buy copies of your report in addition to your free annual copy of the report from each credit reporting company then you should contact the company directly as follows:
It should be noted that your credit report does not include details of your credit score and, should you require your credit score this will need to be purchased from the three credit reporting companies individually. This can again be done by contacting the companies on the telephone numbers listed above or by purchasing your credit score online through their individual websites.
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