How Much Does a Free Credit Report Cost?
If you saw an ad in the newspaper for a FREE CAR to the next 20 people who arrived at a particular car lot, would you go? I would! In fact, most people would probably be out the door before they read the fine print that said you must purchase a key for $28,000 to get the car for free.
I can just imagine the riot at the dealership when the salespersons pointed that out to the mob in the sales lot.
Now apply that to your credit report.
With the sheer number of identity theft victims (many who are not aware of it yet) and the chance for mistakes in your credit file (Wall Street Journal estimates that 79% of all credit files have errors), it is in the consumer's best interest to check their credit report on a regular basis and correct errors if and when they appear.
I believe that this should be done every 6 months minimum and certainly before making a major purchase such as a car or a home.
The free credit resource that I recommend to my family, friends and clients is annualcreditreport (full contact information is below).
This site is monitored by the FTC and created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies to allow everyone to have access to their credit report.
You are given access to your report after answering a series of questions to verify your identity.
They do not give you your scores for free, but you are allowed to purchase them from the site if you wish.
I tell my clients that they can purchase the scores if they wish, but the numbers that they are given may or may not (usually not) correspond to the scores that a mortgage lender would see.
They are also different that what a car dealer would see and different than what your insurance agent would see.
Add in the fact that some of the companies are using the new Vantage system while others are not and this whole ordeal can leave you very confused.
Back to my original question: how much does a free credit report cost? While the report may be given to you at no cost, it is usually under the condition that you sign up for some type of credit monitoring service.
Although I will not plug any particular companies, I pay about $15 a month to have my reports "monitored".
I get an email when there is an inquiry on my report, if there are significant changes to it such as large balance changes or anything negative, and I get one once a month telling me that there were no changes.
On top of that, I can run a new credit report on myself EVERY DAY if I wish and it will not hurt my scores like an inquiry from a credit card company, car dealer or mortgage lender might.
If you decide to try one of the monitoring companies, they will usually let you cancel within the first 30 days without charge if you are not satisfied.
Check their terms and conditions to be sure.
The downfall of annualcreditreport.
com is that you are only able to pull one report from each of the three bureaus (Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax) every 12 months (in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act).
For someone who just wants to check their report infrequently, they could get one report every 4 months and be safer than if they had done nothing.
For some, it is worth a small financial outlay every month to have the protection that the other companies offer.
It's really up to the individual.
That's all on Free Credit Reports.
I will be releasing future articles on what to look for on your report, how to dispute issues that you may find and how to improve your scores, among other topics.
Here is how to get your free credit report: Online: annualcreditreport.
com Phone: 1-877-322-8228 Mail: Print, complete and send the request form (found online at annualcreditreport.
com) to Annual Credit Report Request Service PO Box 105281 Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
I can just imagine the riot at the dealership when the salespersons pointed that out to the mob in the sales lot.
Now apply that to your credit report.
With the sheer number of identity theft victims (many who are not aware of it yet) and the chance for mistakes in your credit file (Wall Street Journal estimates that 79% of all credit files have errors), it is in the consumer's best interest to check their credit report on a regular basis and correct errors if and when they appear.
I believe that this should be done every 6 months minimum and certainly before making a major purchase such as a car or a home.
The free credit resource that I recommend to my family, friends and clients is annualcreditreport (full contact information is below).
This site is monitored by the FTC and created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies to allow everyone to have access to their credit report.
You are given access to your report after answering a series of questions to verify your identity.
They do not give you your scores for free, but you are allowed to purchase them from the site if you wish.
I tell my clients that they can purchase the scores if they wish, but the numbers that they are given may or may not (usually not) correspond to the scores that a mortgage lender would see.
They are also different that what a car dealer would see and different than what your insurance agent would see.
Add in the fact that some of the companies are using the new Vantage system while others are not and this whole ordeal can leave you very confused.
Back to my original question: how much does a free credit report cost? While the report may be given to you at no cost, it is usually under the condition that you sign up for some type of credit monitoring service.
Although I will not plug any particular companies, I pay about $15 a month to have my reports "monitored".
I get an email when there is an inquiry on my report, if there are significant changes to it such as large balance changes or anything negative, and I get one once a month telling me that there were no changes.
On top of that, I can run a new credit report on myself EVERY DAY if I wish and it will not hurt my scores like an inquiry from a credit card company, car dealer or mortgage lender might.
If you decide to try one of the monitoring companies, they will usually let you cancel within the first 30 days without charge if you are not satisfied.
Check their terms and conditions to be sure.
The downfall of annualcreditreport.
com is that you are only able to pull one report from each of the three bureaus (Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax) every 12 months (in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act).
For someone who just wants to check their report infrequently, they could get one report every 4 months and be safer than if they had done nothing.
For some, it is worth a small financial outlay every month to have the protection that the other companies offer.
It's really up to the individual.
That's all on Free Credit Reports.
I will be releasing future articles on what to look for on your report, how to dispute issues that you may find and how to improve your scores, among other topics.
Here is how to get your free credit report: Online: annualcreditreport.
com Phone: 1-877-322-8228 Mail: Print, complete and send the request form (found online at annualcreditreport.
com) to Annual Credit Report Request Service PO Box 105281 Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
