Your credit report has information about your past credit history. Creditors and lenders use your report to give credit and loans to you. Employers use it to hire you. Landlords use it to rent to you.
Federal law gives you the right to view your own credit report. You should check it at least once a year to detect identity theft and make sure the correct information is being reported.
Annualcreditreport.com
This is the centralized website to order your free credit report granted to you by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA). This is the only place to get a free credit report from the three major credit bureaus without obligation.
The Credit Bureaus
You can order your credit reports from each of the credit bureaus individually. Each bureau offers its own credit report as well as 3-in-1 reports with all three credit reports.
MyFICO
FICO, formerly called Fair Isaac, is the company who developed the FICO credit scoring model. You can also order your Experian and TransUnion credit reports (but not Equifax) from the myFICO website. FICO Quarterly Monitoring lets you see your TransUnion credit report and score four times a year for $4.95 per month and FICO Standard lets you order either your TransUnion or Equifax credit report and score for $19.95 one time.
Free Credit Reports
Outside your annual credit report, you can receive a free credit report in other specific situations.If you've have an application denied, you're unemployed and planning to look for a job, you receive government assistance, or you've been a victim of identity theft, you may be entitled to a free credit report. Read Six Ways to Get a Credit Report Free for details.
Watchouts
There are many phishing scams related to credit reports. According to Privacy Clearing House, there are 96 imposter websites for annualcreditreport.com. These websites either want your personal information or want to trick you into signing up for a paid subcription service
- Only visit trusted websites to get your credit report.
- Don't click on links in emails.
- If you mistakenly click on an email link, check to see if the address in your browser is the address you expected.
- Enter personal information into secure sites with URLs begining with "https" or with a lock in the lower-right of the browser, or both.
