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Five Ways to Get Your Credit Report for Free

Written by Nickel - 5 Comments

I’ve talked at length in the past about how your credit score is determined and why it’s important. Aside from paying your bills on time, one of the biggest things you can do to protect your credit score is to keep a close eye on your credit report.

While you’re entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus (see #1, below), sometimes that just doesn’t cut it. Take, for example, our run-in last year with a wayward collection agency.

When we first discovered the problem, we burned through our free credit reports trying to figure out what was going on. We then needed to monitor the situation until it was resolved, so we ended up using a free trial of TrueCredit (see #3, below) to keep an eye on things.

Given the above, I thought I’d put together a list of options for getting your credit report for free. Start at the top and work your way down.

Get it free, the old-fashioned way. As noted above, you can go to annualcreditreport.com and get one free credit report from each of the three major bureaus.
Place a fraud alert on your credit report. Whenever you file a fraud alert, all three credit bureaus will automatically send you a free hardcopy of your credit report.
Get it from TrueCredit. A 30 day free trial of TrueCredit provides you with access to reports from all three credit bureaus plus your credit score. Just don’t forget to cancel – here’s how.
Get it from MyFICO. You can sign up for a free 30 day trial of ScoreWatch from MyFICO.com, which comes with access to your Equifax credit report and FICO credit score. Here again, don’t forget to cancel.
Get it from FreeCreditReport.com, bay-bee! Last but not least, you can sign up for a free trial of TripleAdvantage, which access to your Experian credit report. FreeCreditReport.com has gotten a bad rap in the past, so just know this… You’re signing up for a seven day free trial. If you want a truly free credit report, be sure to cancel before it ends.

Published on August 29th, 2008 - 5 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards, Debt Reduction, House & Home, Identity Theft

About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

5 Responses to “Five Ways to Get Your Credit Report for Free”

1
Savings Toolbox Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Also – you can add that consumers are entitled to a free credit report in the event they are denied credit, loans, mortgages, etc… based on information contained on their credit report. Consumers have 60 days from the date of denial to request a free credit report before the entitlement expires.

Keeping an eye on your credit report is a great proactive measure to maintaining a solid and correct credit history.

Thanks for the links!
2
"Mo" Money Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Good post! If you get a credit report from each of the three reporting agencies, you can spread them out by gettting one every four months, then you will have a fairly current report.
3
Big Winner Says:
August 30th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Thanks for posting this! I just got a free report and it was a very easy process.
4
Andy Says:
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Great post and I have included it in the latest edition of the Money Hacks carnival as an editors pick!
5
Harry Grant Says:
February 28th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I’ve been getting my free FICO monthly for a few years now. This was from a credit card (Washington Mutual).
They have been bought by JP Morgan and this feature is ending this weekend. Is there another credit card that has this feature?

Thanks,
Harry

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