Your credit rating report includes information on where you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you’ve been sued, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy. Nationwide consumer reporting companies sell the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers, and other businesses that use it to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, or renting a home. Your credit rating affects how much you pay for credit, insurance, and deposits for utilities.
Credit bureaus normally charge for their credit scores. However, you are legally entitled to get one free credit rating report from each of the three major credit-reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union — once every 12 months.
“The right to receive a free credit report is an important new tool for consumers,” said Deborah Platt Majoras, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency. “Not only does checking the credit report give consumers a valuable snapshot of their credit histories, it permits them to detect and correct errors, and spot and stop identity theft.”
Order Your Free Credit Rating Report:
The credit rating reports will not be sent automatically. You must request them using one of these three ways:
- Visit AnnualCreditReport.com, which is the only authorized online source for the free annual credit reports.
- Or call 1-877-322-8228 (toll-free)
- Or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.The Form can be downloaded from AnnualCreditReport.com or from the FTC’s Web site at ftc.gov/credit.
Watch For Typos And Scams
If you want to order your free credit rating online, make sure you go to the authorized web site AnnualCreditReport.com. There are a lot of impostor web sites.
Be sure to correctly spell AnnualCreditReport.com, or link to it from here or the FTC’s Web site. If you don’t get the Web address exactly right, you could get sucked in and scammed by one of the many credit report “impostors” currently inhabiting cyber-world. Carefully check the address at top of your browser. Also never follow links from emails. They are surely spam and scams.
AnnualCreditReport.com is the only federally mandated source for free, no-strings-attached credit reports. If you go directly to the credit-reporting agencies, you will be charged unless you fit other criteria for a free report.
When To Order Your Free Reports
Be sure to check each of your reports every year for errors and identity theft. Stagger your requests and get a report from a different credit bureau every four months. It’s simple, it’s free and it’s crucial: Old or inaccurate information could cost you a job, an apartment or a lot of money when you borrow.
Other Ways to Get A Free Credit Rating Report
The federal requirement for a free annual report doesn’t replace the other ways to receive a free credit report.
You’re still entitled to a free credit report if:
- You’ve been denied a loan, insurance policy or job based on your credit report
- You’re applying for unemployment or receive public assistance
- you currently reside in a state that already offers free credit reports from each credit-reporting agency (Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and Vermont).
