Why you should get your free credit report

It's easier than ever to get a free credit report online.

The law entitles you to a free credit report once every twelve months from each of the three nationwide reporting companies. Get yours online in less than five minutes, then review it at your leisure.

What's in your credit report. Your report includes information on your bill payment history, loans, current debt, and other financial information. It shows where you work and live and whether you have been sued, arrested, or have filed for bankruptcy. Even if you have no intention of borrowing money or changing jobs or homes in the near future, you should still request your free credit report each year to guard against identity theft.

Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are entitled to a free credit report once every twelve months from each of the nationwide credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You may order all three reports at the same time or space them out throughout the year.

Get your free report.  AnnualCreditReport.com is the only website that is authorized by the government to provide you with free copies of your credit report. Do not contact the three nationwide credit reporting companies individually, or you may find yourself enrolled in an ongoing fee-based monitoring plan once the trial period is over. And do not be led astray by companies using terms like “free report” in their names!

Make sure that the internet connection you use is completely secure, as you will be revealing private information. You will first be asked to provide your name, address, social security number, and date of birth. If you have moved in the last two years, you will need to provide your previous address. To maintain your online security and validate your identity, you will then be asked a series of questions whose answers would only be known by you.

You will have a choice of requesting reports from one, two, or all three companies. Your report is then generated for you to print or save to pdf. (For security purposes, printing the report is preferable to saving it on your computer, unless you choose to save it on a removable drive.)

How about your credit score? Your free credit report does not include your credit score, but once your credit report has been generated, you will be asked if you want to purchase your credit score. While in the past this might have been a good idea, these days there is no reason to pay to learn this number. If your credit card company is not already providing your FICO score on your monthly statement, you can get your score totally free from websites such as CreditKarma.com, CreditSesame.com, and Credit.com, which make their money by suggesting loans, credit cards, and other financial products to you.

For more information, see the information on the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau website. 

Review your credit report content. Your credit report will list each of your loans and credit cards. You will see the account type, responsibility (eg, joint or individual), date opened or closed, high balance, credit limit, terms, and pay status, along with monthly balance information and payment history for the most recent years. Each account is then rated as current, 30 days late, 60 days late, and so on.

Confirm that all of the accounts listed are, in fact, yours, and that their payment status is accurate. Take note of the credit limits on each of your accounts.

Report any errors. You may find errors in your credit report: credit cards you never opened, misspelled names, or other inaccurate information. By law, both the credit reporting company and the information provider are responsible for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information, but you will need to report the error in writing both to the credit reporting company and to the information provider of the disputed item.

For complete information on reporting errors, please see the very helpful article on the website of the Federal Trade Commission.