Yearly Free Credit Report

It's Spring so that's the time I've reserved for reviewing my yearly free credit report to see what mischief both reporting companies and the three major credit bureaus have been up to since last Spring. I've reviewed my credit report for the last 3-4 years, each time filing any corrections or disputes on current information.

I haven't applied for any credit or changed any accounts in the last year so it should be up to date and the information should all be correct. But there are a couple of things that first timers might not know about this free credit report process that can be helpful.

First, although the credit report is free, your credit score is not. You do have an option to purchase that additional information for $6-12 at each credit bureau. That's one of the reasons I think that the credit bureaus readily agreed with the government requirements in my opinion. This provides the credit bureaus an opportunity to sell you something.

Next, all three credit bureaus have a different format, may have different reporting companies, and different methods to dispute the information. So each may access your credit score with a different result. Each also have different ways to verify you are you when providing your report.

Anyway, before I go on about the yearly free credit report, let me go run mine and tell you exactly what happened and how I did it. Hopefully I'll be back 30-40 minutes with my results and a few stories to tell about my experience.

OK, I'm back with some good news. It's getting easier to go through the routine at all three credit bureaus. This service has been available at www.annualcreditreport.com since 2005 or at least that's when I first found out about the website. All three credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equafax support the website. 

Once you arrive at the annualcreditreport.com website you see a section that says start here. You select your state (some states have similar laws to the Federal FACT), and click on the button that says request report. You are then taken to a page that you fill in the basics, full name, ssan, address, and second address if not at current address for 2 years. There is also the standard image with letters and numbers you need to enter to keep any atuo bots from using the system.

You then chose one or more of the three credit bureaus to request your current credit report. Each time you go to an individual credit bureau website, after you finish you click on the return to annualcreditreport.com to go to the next credit bureau.

Each credit bureau has a little different method to once again put in your information and verify your identity by asking a few questions about personal accounts or other known information from your report. This can be account numbers, name of lenders, or specific details of a credit transaction. Make sure you know this information before you start.

It only takes about 3-4 minutes to fill out the information and answer the 3-4 verification questions. The next screen you see is a about including actual credit score and other offerings. I didn't care about my credit score since I'm not looking for credit, just monitoring my information to make sure it is correct. The score might be important if you are getting ready to apply for a loan or other credit to see exactly where you stand (you can learn more about credit scores and what they mean in our article here: Fico Credit Score).  

Once you make your choice, the web page churns for about a minute or two and up comes your report. You can print it out and you should also record the request number if you want to review again online for two, TransUnion and Experian, both tell you how to do that, one has you register your name and a password. Equifax warns that you better print it out since you can't view again unless you have signed up for 30 days program (for a price).

The amount of information and the time it takes to print our will vary depending on your age and number of credit transactions over the years. Another factor that can effect amount of information is that each of credit bureaus may have different reporting companies, so some will have more than others.

On my credit reports, Equifax was the longest at 25 pages. Experian was next at 18, and TransUnion was the smallest at 12 pages. I'm happy to report that all three were very easy to interpret and broken out in an organized manner. Each reported item, good or bad, were clearly written and included contact information.

Each credit report had easy to understand dispute methods, credit law information, and of course some additional products that you could buy. Monitoring, credit analysis, etc. But in all fairness they gave plenty of free advice too. 

I didn't have any incorrect information, probably due more to lack of activity and the fact that I check every year. When I first ran the free credit reports a few years ago I filed several disputes, 2 that belonged to a fellow with the same name, and two that had wrong addresses. No big deal but it took more than one request for the information to be removed.

So there is absolutely no reason not to do a yearly free credit report check with all three major bureaus. It's quick, easy, no cost to you, and allows you to review for any errors or incorrect information. Just go to www.annualcreditreport.com and check our your credit reports (and credit score for another $6-12 if desired).

You can see individual articles on each of the three major credit bureaus at these links: