How to Check Your Credit Report for Free

Your credit report lists vital information that banks, credit cards, car dealerships, insurance companies, rental agencies and even potential employers will check to show “information on where you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you’ve been sued or arrested, or have filed for bankruptcy” (www.ftc.gov). It is important to know what’s in your credit report to make sure that everything they think they know about you is correct, and to give you a chance to challenge or fix anything in there that is incorrect. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) and The Fair Credit Report (FCRA) in promoting accurate and private information, requires each of the three major credit bureaus to provide individual consumers access to their credit report. Once a year, you will be able to access each of these companies credit report about you which is important to check before you apply for a loan, buy insurance, or apply for a job.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Access to the Internet or phone to contact the program set up to offer free credit reporting.
• Your name, address, Social Security number.

1. 
    

   The three credit bureaus have set up an official site where you can order your free annual reports (one for each bureau). You can use their website which is https://www.annualcreditreport.com. This is a secure and legitimate site. They will never email you or solicit you to visit. To ensure security, type the link directly into your address bar.

2. If you prefer to talk to someone in person, you can call 1-877-322-8228 and their operators will walk you through the process.

3. You can also receive your credit report by mail. Just complete the “Annual Credit Request Form” available from the website or requested by phone, and mail it to:
   Annual Credit Report Request Service,
   P.O. Box 105281
   Atlanta, GA
   30348-5281

Tips & Warnings

• You can also receive a free report, in addition to your once a year allowance if a company rejects or takes negative action including denying an application for a loan, insurance or a job. You will need to request the report within 60 days of receiving the notice.
• You can receive an additional free report a year if you are unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days.
• Be careful of imposter web sites. Web sites or emails that offer free credit reports, credit scores, or credit monitoring are not part of this legal program. Often the “free” they are offering comes with fee services. Make sure that you are at the one official site, and if you are at all concerned about the legitimacy of a site, leave. Do not respond to solicited requests of your personal information in relation to these “free sites”.

Resources

• Annual Credit Report site
• Government Information on Credit Reporting and Consumer Rights

[nickjohnsonber]

on 11/27/2009 Great articles 5 stars for that information

Recently I've found a site that offer you to get free credit report and scores.This site also offer credit monitoring and credit fraud alerts, and they also can dispute your bad credit report.I thought I would help everyone here to share it.You should try it:

http://www.EliteCreditreport.Info