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Free Annual Credit Report

esquared

esquared

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
It's been a year since this topic was posted so I thought that I would throw another thread out there instead of bumping my 2 year-old thread or Twofootputt's year old one.

For those not in the know, you can get an annual credit report free from each of the the three credit reporting companies, Transunion, Experian and Equifax. If you space this right you can get a report every 4 months by staggering your request to each company.

AnnualCreditReport.com

From the Website:
This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
 
Exactly my strategy, to space each report out 4 months. It works great. I urge anyone who has not to pull your credit reports. Be advised most ask several questions to verify you are who you claim to be such as last CC payments amount, mortgage amount, etc.

Fortunately I have found all the reports to be accurate. Certainly is reassuring to see them though.

I remember back in the 80's I had to pay $10 *just to see* my report at the local credit bureau and they wouldn?t let me have a copy.
 
Some credit cards offer to give you your credit score free once a month, I have this feature w/ my Providan / Wamu Visa Card, its really the only reason I have the card, great feature to manage your credit and to know how your credit stands, they normaly only provide it from transunion though.
 
Originally posted by: kinev
Any way to get your FICO score free?
Click to expand...

Have you tried going to the dealer and pretending to buy a car? that's how I got my credit report for free. And since they wanted to really check my credit, im sure they checked the buerau that mattered and not the other two.

 
Originally posted by: Okimoto
Originally posted by: kinev
Any way to get your FICO score free?
Click to expand...

Have you tried going to the dealer and pretending to buy a car? that's how I got my credit report for free. And since they wanted to really check my credit, im sure they checked the buerau that mattered and not the other two.
Click to expand...

There isn't one "bureau that matters" and the other two don't. It just depends on the place you go to. Some places base it on one or the other just because that's the bureau they use. My bank looked at all 3 when I went in to get preapproved for a mortgage. Their policy is to use the middle of the 3 scores to determine approval levels.
 
Thanks man, but the military are SOL for this one fyi, thanks to some jackass who got a laptop stolen with 10 million social security numbers and profiles.

I appreciate the post though!
 
Originally posted by: Okimoto
Originally posted by: kinev
Any way to get your FICO score free?
Click to expand...

Have you tried going to the dealer and pretending to buy a car? that's how I got my credit report for free. And since they wanted to really check my credit, im sure they checked the buerau that mattered and not the other two.
Click to expand...

It would hurt your credit score if you do it frequent.
 
Originally posted by: Okimoto
Have you tried going to the dealer and pretending to buy a car? that's how I got my credit report for free. And since they wanted to really check my credit, im sure they checked the buerau that mattered and not the other two.
Click to expand...
As already mentioned there is no one credit reporting company that matters more than the others. What you are advising is considered a "hard" credit inquiry and that type of inquiry from a lender directly affects your credit score. I personally can't imagine anybody taking the advice of someone who can't spell bureau and would rather spend an hour or two with a car salesman than spend $10 on a single credit report.


 
In light of recent incidents of stolen data, keeping a watchful on your credit has never been so important. Thanks OP for the reminder and my humble gratitude to the government for this cost free provision.
 
Thanks for the reminder. I'm all clean! It had been about 2 years since last check.

I did get a free credit score as a special promotion once from FreeCreditReports.com. Maybe they will do that again some day.
 
Originally posted by: tommytran
Originally posted by: Okimoto
Originally posted by: kinev
Any way to get your FICO score free?
Click to expand...

Have you tried going to the dealer and pretending to buy a car? that's how I got my credit report for free. And since they wanted to really check my credit, im sure they checked the buerau that mattered and not the other two.
Click to expand...

It would hurt your credit score if you do it frequent.
Click to expand...

Doing it even once would hurt your credit score because the dealer will send the your credit app out to 6-7 banks that will compete to get your loan, some of which will check EXp, TU and EQu. If you want to drop you fico score go shop for a car. I used to work for a bank in there auto loan division. All three agencies matter aswell because different agencies pick their prefrence on which to use.
 
I haven't done this in a while because I forgot which site was legitimate, free* or annual*

Thanks for the reminder, OP.
 
Originally posted by: Redfoot
Thanks man, but the military are SOL for this one fyi, thanks to some jackass who got a laptop stolen with 10 million social security numbers and profiles.

I appreciate the post though!
Click to expand...

I just did it no problem.
 
I just got all three of my reports and FICO score yesterday. If you go through all three reports from annualcreditreports you can get your FICO score for free by signing up for the myFICO software and then cancelling before the 30-day trial is up. That's what I did, didn't want to pay $7.95 for it. You may be able to go to myFICO.com directly and do it.

-Jason
 
I'm sorry I can't read through the whole thread right now (forgot glasses), but does your credit rating/score drop per request? This is a "hard" inquery, no?

Forgive my lack of credit-report-knowledge. Actually, one of my old professor's laptop got stolen a few months ago and it had several thousand student socials, including mine, with names. We were all advised to get a credit check, but I am not too clear on how to do such a thing 🙁
 
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