How to Get Your Free Credit Report and Free Score
A credit report is an important way of monitoring your credit score, which is essentially your credit worthiness, which in turn enables you to obtain a credit card, a loan, a car or a mortgage. Unfortunately, many people don’t know the importance of a credit report, let alone how to obtain a free copy of one, and then find themselves surprised when they are rejected when applying for credit. But you can get your credit report and your credit score, without paying a dime if you know what you are doing.
Getting your credit report is important for a few reasons. If you know your credit score before applying for credit you can avoid being rejected and surprises about what’s on there. Having a copy in hand allows you to ensure that all information about you and your credit history are accurate and up-to-date. If you do find something to be inaccurate, you can work to have it removed. Knowing what’s on your report gives you an opportunity to improve your credit rating. And lastly, with as much identity theft as is prevalent, knowing what’s on your credit reports ensures that your information is safeguarded and that nobody is applying for credit in your name, which can ruin your credit and cause years of heartache.
Credit Reporting Agencies and What’s On Their Reports
There are three credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. For the most part all three will report identical information about you. However, this is not always a given. On occasion one will omit a creditor that another will add to your credit report. Each tabulates your credit score – also known as your FICO – slightly differently, although their numbers should be within 10 points of one another. Your credit score determines everything from whether you will be approved for a line of credit, a credit card, to buy a car and eventually obtain a mortgage to buy a house. It was also determine what interest rate the bank who is issuing you credit will charge you. The higher your score, the lower your interest rate will be, which will save you money.
It’s also important to know what is on your credit report, as this information is reported to creditors, potential employers, or someone from whom you’re trying to rent an apartment. Indeed many utility companies pull credit reports to decide whether a deposit is required prior to establishing an account for electricity, gas or garbage collection.
What is on a credit report:
- Your name
- Your address
- Date of birth
- Social security number
- Any aliases you have ever had, including maiden name, married name(s)
- Previous addresses
- Credit history for the past 7 years
- Bill payments for the last 7 years, which includes all late and missed payments
- Credit limits – whether lowered or raised
- Closed accounts – either by grantor or you
- Inquiries into your report – either by you or a credit
- Defaults on loans/credit cards
- Foreclosures/repossessions
Getting Your Free Credit Report
To obtain a free one, you can order one online from the annualcreditreport.com. This site is the site one that is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. Through the ACR, you can contact one of the three major credit bureaus and one of them will issue you a free credit report. You may also get a 3-in-1 credit report all at once. Anyone else claiming to be able to get you a free credit report or your credit score is bogus. This is the only game in town. Once you follow the instructions to get your free credit report, one will be available to you immediately and will continue to be for up to thirty days. You may also call them toll free at: 1-877-322-8228.
If you have been turned down for credit in the last thirty days, you are also eligible for a free credit report from all three reporting agencies.
Reporting Discrepancies
It is extremely important if you notice anything on your credit report that isn’t accurate to report it to the consumer who reported this misinformation. Anything that is inaccurate is potentially damaging to your credit, whether is credit that was obtained by someone else in your name or an address that you never lived at.
At the end of the day, all that you have to prove your credit worthiness is a credit report that tells the world everything you have done in the last 7 years. Before you apply for credit of any kind, order a free copy of your credit report with your credit score.