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(From the Financial Literacy Blog) – Along with being a record of your borrowing and repayment history, your credit report is a reflection of your financial health and responsibility. Your credit report will show a list of all your credit accounts, such as credit cards and loans. It also notes any missed or late payments, as well as bad debts. Lenders and creditors may check your report to determine whether you are trustworthy and to evaluate the risk of lending you money. Landlords, employers, insurance companies, and others may also check your report.
With so many entities referencing your credit report, it’s essential to review it yourself, too. Monitoring your report is a proactive step towards safeguarding your financial wellbeing. By checking it, you can spot inaccuracies, fraud, and threats to your financial stability. Here is how to check your free credit report:
Under federal law, the three national credit reporting agencies—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—allow people to access their credit report for free through the Annual Credit Report Request Service. Historically, people have been able to access one free report from each of the three agencies once a year. For example, if someone checked their report from one of the companies on May 1 of this year, they wouldn’t get another free report from the same company until May 2 of next year. However, following the pandemic, people now have permanent access to free weekly checks. People can request their free report by phone, mail, or most commonly, online.
Online
The official site for viewing your free credit report online is https://www.AnnualCreditReport.com. By using this website, which is authorized by the Federal Government, you can get your report immediately after verifying your identity through an authentication process. Be prepared to verify your name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number. You may also need to answer questions about your existing credit accounts, if you have any. Make sure you’re accessing the website URL as shown above—not any fraudulent websites posing as the Annual Credit Report Request Service. Imposter websites may have slightly misspelled URLs and might prompt you with emails, calls, or texts asking for your personal information. The legitimate website will only ask for your information from within the site and will not reach out to you through another medium.
Phone
If you don’t have internet access or you would prefer checking your report over the phone, you can call toll-free at 1-877-322-8228. Much like you would online, you’ll need to go through a verification process over the phone. Your credit report will then be mailed to you within 15 days.
The last method of receiving your free credit report from the Annual Credit Report Request Service is to download a request form from the official website. You can print and complete the form, and then mail it to the following address:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
PO Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Your credit report will then be mailed to you within 15 days.
The Bottom Line
Checking your credit report is a proactive way of protecting yourself from financial exploitation and serves as a centralized summary of all of your past and current credit accounts. While you can get free weekly reports, you can also buy a report from each of the three national credit reporting agencies—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—if you need access to your report more than once a week. There are other services available where you can purchase your report and also monitor your credit score, but accuracy and security can vary. Accessing your report through the Annual Credit Report Request Service or the three main credit bureaus is recommended.