Free credit reports are as promised. The rest is up to you

Before Congress authorized the law that allowed consumers to have access to their own credit reports, people had to buy them. Prices varied from one bureau to the other, and averaged $20-$25 each. Consumers rightly complained that they should not have to pay to obtain copies of their own personal information, and Congress complied. By visiting the Annual Credit Report Website, consumers can obtain one copy of their credit report from each bureau per year. All that is required is that the individual answer a few questions in order to confirm his or her identity. After that, the credit report is usually available online in a minute or two. Consumers may optionally order them by phone or mail.

That system works well now that a few early glitches have been resolved. There are still a few problems with the system that make using it less than ideal, however.

Some credit reports contain errors. In fact, it has been estimated that nearly 25% of reports have errors. If some of those errors work their way into the questions that you have to answer in order to see your report, your request to do so may be denied. You may then have to request your report by mail or phone. Furthermore, your report will not include the all-important credit score, be it the VantageScore or the more common FICO score. These scores are used by creditors and lenders to determine if you are eligible for a loan or eligible for the best interest rates. Knowing your score is important, but you will not see that with the free document. To obtain your credit score, you will have to purchase a report from one or more of the bureaus.

There are also still problems with the name of the Website itself. A Google search for “free credit report” turns up nearly two million different Websites. Yet there is only one site where this information is officially available for free, and that is AnnualCreditReport.com. The other sites have been intentionally set up by others for the express purpose of misleading consumers. Many of these sites promise “free’ reports, but those are usually tied in to subscription services that may be buried in the fine print of the Websites information. Some of these “free” reports can cost you $100 or more if you aren’t careful.

All in all, the system set up by Congress and the three major bureaus, Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax, is working as intended. Assuming that they can find the correct Website and can provide the personal information, consumers can access their financial history within minutes and see whether or not they have any errors that need to be corrected. If so, they can then contact the bureaus directly in order to fix any problems. The system isn’t perfect, by any means, but it is one of the few things created by Congress in the past few years that actually works to the benefit of the consumer.

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