New law entitles you to free credit reports
On April 2, 2010 a brand new Federal Trade Commission rule enabling individuals to receive a yearly no-strings-attached free credit report went into effect. The law requires that the three major reporting agencies provide you with your report free of charge no less than once every twelve months. Your reports from all three agencies can be obtained at AnnualCreditReport.com, or 877-322-8228. This isn’t one of the many businesses that provide free reports only if you test their products. This is the ONLY official resource for the totally free annual credit report that is entitled to everyone by law.
It is important to be aware that these no-cost credit reports do not include your actual credit score, just the information which influences your credit score. Even so, all these details are exactly what determine your score. You will get a good idea of what your score is by analyzing information within your report.
Once you go to AnnualCreditReport.com, you will be given a choice of which report(s) you would like; the TransUnion credit report, the Equifax credit report and/or the Experian credit report. You’ll be able to select all of these, any two or just one. The benefit of choosing all three is the fact that there might be different information in each of them; therefore looking at all three provides you with the clearest picture of your status. Conversely, because you can only get each report once a year, obtaining a single report just about every four months allows you to keep an eye on your credit for fraud and mistakes. Anybody attempting to repair their credit score really should request all three at the same time, while individuals who would like to watch for identity theft might space the three reports thoughout the entire year.
