Yes, every adult in the U.S. is entitled to a free credit report each year.  You actually get THREE free reports annually, one from each of the three credit reporting agencies, better known as credit bureaus.   These have been available since late 2004, thanks to the provisions in FACTA, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which was added to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, FCRA.

The heavily advertised “free” reports you see on television and online are NOT your free annual reports the law provides for.  Prior to Congress passing these laws, the only way consumers could get copies of their credit reports was to pay for them.  So naturally when they became available for free, the credit bureaus developed ways to capture some of their lost credit report income.  Guess who actually is behind the singing pirates and freecreditreport.com??  Yep, Experian, one of the major credit bureaus.  They even offer opportunities for you to spend money when obtaining your FREE reports!

Their are only two legitimate websites to get your free, annual reports that you are entitled to by law:  www.annualcreditreport.com and www.ftc.gov.

NOTE: The Federal Trade Commission will direct consumers to annualcreditreport.com.

When you log onto the site to get your report, you will be asked to enter personal identification information, including your Social Security number.  Make sure your computer’s security systems are updated and look up at the website address line.  It should have an https://, not just http://.  The “S” means it is a secure site.  Knowing that you initiated the contact yourself and double checking for a secure site greatly reduces the likelihood of being on a phony site.

WHAT TO DO
Your free reports are FREE.  The credit bureaus will ‘offer’ lots of different items for purchase.  These include monitoring services and scores.  And these advertised items are right up front, before you can even get to your credit report.  Just say NO.  Sometimes the button says “NO THANKS”; whatever it says, click it to save yourself some money and get to your free annual report.

NOTE: The credit scores offered by the credit bureaus are usually NOT actual FICO scores, the ones that most financial companies use.  These ‘consumer education’ scores are not an apples-to-apples comparison with what your lender sees – save your money, don’t buy them.  You can get your actual FICO scores here.   They are $16 each and include a full report; contact us for discount codes.

Remember, any time you have to give credit card information for something “FREE”, it isn’t free!  With determination and a small amount of time, you can check your own credit reports at no cost. 

We recommend checking one of your three free ones every four months; this gives you regular, periodic monitoring throughout the year.  Simply mark your calendar or planner to log on and get  your credit report.    When reviewing your credit report, look for unknown accounts, unusual or incorrect balances on your existing accounts, inquiries for new credit that you don’t recognize, extra social security numbers or names that don’t belong to you.  Click here for tips on what to do when you find errors on your reports.

We offer a Credit Analysis for only $100 that includes a review of your current credit report and provides you with strategies to positively impact and build your credit scores.  Contact us today to order yours.

Thanks, David, for a great question that led to this article!

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