Free credit report comes from one Website only

If you read newspapers, surf the Web, or watch late night television, you will often encounter advertisements for how you can obtain a copy of your “free” credit report. Saturation media coverage has managed to let the public know how important it is to have a healthy credit score and a report is simply a documentation of that score. If you have past judgments, bankruptcies, delinquencies or unpaid debts, your report and your credit score will reflect that. If you have a history of paying on time and in full, your financial health will be reflected in your report. 

Many consumers are aware that a credit report, being something of value, has traditionally been sold by the three major credit bureaus. That being the case, why are so many people offering one for free? A Google search for “free credit report” returned more than four million sites in the search results! What is all of that about?

The answer is a simple one and it should be obvious - most of the businesses that purport to offer “free” credit reports are not really doing that. What they are offering is a copy of your credit report as a bonus if you sign up for some service that they offer. If you do that, then they will give you a copy of your report. The problem, as millions of people have discovered, is that this information is often hidden in the fine print of the Website. The word “Free!” is in large letters; the part that says, “if you sign up and pay us $100 per year” is in small letters. People sign up and provide their credit card information thinking that they are doing so for security purposes or something. It’s only when the bill comes that they realize that “free” really meant something else and something expensive.

While millions of Websites have information about free credit reports, there is only one place where you can actually receive a copy for free with absolutely no strings attached. This site is AnnualCreditReport.com. This site was established by the major credit bureaus with the help, and insistence, of Congress. Each consumer may receive one copy of his or her report each year from each of the three major bureaus - Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. In fact, if you spread the reports out over the course of the year, you could get one for free every four months.

There is a limitation of one report per year per bureau, and the reports do not include any form of credit score. If you need to or want to know your VantageScore or FICO score numbers, you will have to pay for a report that contains that information. It is nice to know, however, that in a world where scams are pretty common, that you can actually get something of value for nothing at all. Given how important your financial information can be, it would be wise to take advantage of it.

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