Where To Get Your Free Credit Report

Before you can start working on raising your credit score, you need to get a copy of your credit report to see what you’re dealing with. You’ve no doubt heard of the website FreeCreditReport.com, and this is one place you can get your report if you’re willing to sign up for a $14.95 a month credit monitoring service (you do have 7 days to cancel before you have to pay anything – just be aware that they make a lot of money from these “free” reports).

Another source is the site www.AnnualCreditReport.com. Congress passed a law requiring that the 3 major credit agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) provide to anyone who requests it a free credit report once a year. What congress failed to include in the law was a requirement that the bureaus also provide you with your credit score for free. You can get some good information by looking at these free reports – like seeing if someone else is using your social security number to open credit accounts in your name – but it is much more helpful if you know your credit score, and you’ll have to pay for that.

How Much Does A Credit Score Cost?

A typical charge for obtaining a score from each bureau is about $10-15, so to get all 3 of your scores, it would cost you about $30-45. Being in the mortgage business, I am involved in working with credit scores every day. As such, I find the following two bits of info important to pass on:

• If you’re trying to get approved for a mortgage, you should know that mortgage companies use the middle of your 3 scores to determine your eligibility. So by only getting one score, you may not have enough information to know for sure if you will qualify or not. I have seen credit scores for the same person vary by over 150 points between the 3 credit bureaus. This isn’t common, but there will ALWAYS be some variance in scores amongst the 3 bureaus. So it’s best, if you really want to know if you’ll qualify or not, to get all 3 credit scores.
• Mortgage approvals are based on FICO scores (there are many types of credit scores – a subject for another article). When you buy your own credit report from the bureaus yourself, only Equifax will provide a FICO score to you. The other two bureaus provide something known as a “consumer” score – and this can be quite different from you FICO score. But since many non-mortgage factions will use your “consumer” score, the information is still valuable to you.

Get Turned Down and Get A Free Report

Another way to get your report – with a score – for free is whenever you’ve been turned down for credit. If you applied for a car loan or credit card and been denied, the company you applied to must provide you with a reason for the denial. If that denial reason mentions that they based their decision, in full or in part, because of information found on your credit report, then you have the right to request a copy of your report for free.

I don’t recommend that you start applying for loans you know you can’t get in order to qualify for a free copy of your credit report, but if you are ever denied for credit, this is a good opportunity to find out what’s going on. It’s your right to do so, so take advantage of it.

Related Articles:

• Repair Your Credit
• Debt Consolidation – What to Look For, What to Watch Out For
• Free Credit Reports
• Credit Scoring is like a Teeter Totter
• Credit Scoring In Plain English