The Best Places to Receive a Credit Report

Your credit report is an important financial tool. It provides information to creditors, lenders, insurance companies and even employers to help them make decisions. The information on your credit report can mean the difference between getting a loan, insurance policy or job and getting turned down. Credit reports are typically received from three sources. You can receive your own reports to make sure the information on each is correct and to challenge any erroneous items. The three major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Equifax

Equifax offers reports to businesses and creditors for review, and it sells a variety of services to consumers. For example, you can purchase your FICO score from Equifax or sign up for a paid credit monitoring service. However, they are required by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act to give you a free copy of your credit report every year if you request it. You can receive this free report by visiting the Equifax website and clicking the "Free annual credit report" link. This will take you to the official site for requesting the no-obligation report.

Experian

Experian sells your credit report to lenders and businesses to review in their decisions. It also offers paid services to consumers, such as identity theft protection and credit scores. However, like the other bureaus, the law requires it to give you a free copy of your credit report annually upon your request. You can get this free report by visiting the Experian website and clicking the link for the Annual Credit Report site. If you request your report in any other way on its site, you will be enrolling in paid services.

TransUnion

In addition to selling credit reports to businesses and lenders, TransUnion also offers a variety of paid consumer services. These include identity protection and access to the consumer's credit score. TransUnion is required by law to provide a free copy of your credit report on an annual basis. To get this report without paying for other services, visit TransUnion's website and click the link offering information about free credit reports and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.

Freecreditreport.com

Freecreditreport.com, which is owned by Experian, has frequent television ads implying that you can get your credit report at no cost through its service. However, it downplays the fact that you can only get the free report if you enroll in its Triple Advantage paid service. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) even fought the misleading ads by producing a spoof ad of its own to warn consumers.

Other Websites

There are many other websites that are not as well known as Freecreditreport.com but operate the same way. They offer a free credit report without making it clear that you must agree to purchase another service. The only truly free website with no strings attached is the Annual Credit Report site, which can be accessed on its own or through the three credit bureau websites.

References

• Equifax website
• Experian website
• TransUnion

Resources

• Free Annual Credit Reports
• FTC warning ad

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[johndjsnjdff]

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http://www.CreditReportfrees.Info

[tachic]

on 11/10/2009 Great tips to receive credit report.