Get Your Free Credit Report Only from Annualcreditreport.com

Published by nora | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Communities, Market Trends, Miscellaneous, Mortgage / Finance, Real Estate, Shout Outs

You can obtain a free copy of your annual credit report from each of the three major consumer credit report agencies – Equifax, TransUnion and Experian – once every year. But make sure you’re requesting your credit report at the website Annualcreditreport.com.

See to it that the URL on the page you’re using starts with https://int.annualcreditreport.com/. This website was created by the three agencies specifically to issue the free annual credit reports and to guide consumers about obtaining and monitoring their credit records.

You need to make sure you’re on the right web page when requesting for your credit report because of at least three reasons:

• There are a lot of websites offering free credit reports and they often look like they’re the real thing. Many of these may lead you eventually to the authorized site, but only after you’ve paid a membership fee for other credit-related services.
• Entering your personal financial information on unreliable sites would make you vulnerable to identity theft.
• Requesting your free annual credit report directly from Equifax, TransUnion or Experian could be mistaken for a typical credit report request and you would be charged for it.

You can request your free credit report from all the three agencies at the same time so you can compare them, or you can schedule your request one agency at a time so you can monitor your credit transactions without paying for several reports throughout the year.

A typical credit report contains important details on the following:

• Your accounts such as auto loans, bank loans, credit card loans and home loans
• Your accounts in public records like county records, such as bankruptcy
• Companies or other entities that requested for your credit history
• And your personal information.

After using up your once-a-year free credit report with all the three agencies, you would need to pay for any subsequent request.There are other instances when you can request for a free credit report from any of the three agencies:

• If you live in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey and Vermont. These states have laws that allow their residents to get credit reports for free.
• If your application for insurance, credit or employment was denied because of your credit record
• If you’re a welfare recipient
• If you’re jobless and you plan to find a job within 60 days
• If your credit report is erroneous because of fraud

After you use up your free chances, the agencies can charge you up to $10.50 for a copy of your credit report for subsequent requests. Although the three agencies differ in the types of information highlighted, they all help you monitor your credit.