How to Check Your Credit Report Online

The federal law requires all consumers to receive a free copy of their credit report every twelve months from each of the three national consumer credit reporting agencies. These three credit reporting agencies are: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. It is a very good idea to check your credit report for a lot of reasons. Identity theft is on the rise and you want to make sure all of the items listed on the credit report are correct (and yours). Even if you are not thinking of buying anything or need your credit report for any specific reason, you should take advantage of the free annual offer and check your credit report. You can request these reports by phone or mail, but the easiest and fastest way to check your credit report is to check it online. Once you have all of the needed information, you can instantly see your report online. The following steps will show you how to check your credit report online.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• Internet Connection
• Personal Information

1. Go to the online site for your free annual credit report. See Resources below for a direct link to Annual Credit Report, which is the website created by the three credit reporting companies to provide this free service to the consumers per federal laws. Select your state from the drop down arrow and then click on the “Request Report” button.

2. Fill in your personal information. You will have to fill in all of the fields marked with a red *. This includes your name, birthday, social security number, current address and possibly a previous address too. Once you have supplied all of the details required, type in the characters shown in the box at the bottom left of the page and click on the “Continue” button.

3. Pick the credit reports you would like to get. The page that opens allows you to select from one to all three of the credit reporting agencies. Place a check in the box next to the one(s) you want then click on the “Next” button. You will have to select the “Next” button again to go directly to the agencies site.

4. Verify who you are and view your credit report online. You will be asked to enter the last four numbers in your social security number and then click on the “Submit” button. Click on the “Annual Credit Report” button and then on the “Submit” button again. You will then have to answer several identity questions to verify who you are and then click on the “Continue” button to view your free report. The above steps outline the Experian agency, but the others are similar.

Tips & Warnings

• You can check all three of the credit reporting companies at the same time or you can check a different one every four months. You are restricted to one free credit report in a twelve-month period for each company. If you spread them out, you can watch for any changes in your credit report throughout the year.
• Some states offer free annual credit reports under their state laws. Check the webpage listed in Resources for more information about this.

Resources

• Annual Credit Report

Who Can Help Sponsored

• How strong is your score?  Did you know checking your own credit won’t affect your score? Click here to see yours in two easy steps from Experian.

[leoherertnej]

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http://www.EliteCreditreport.Info