A Guide to Get a Free Credit Report without Being Scammed

On the 1st of September 2005, all US residents were entitled to have their free credit report copy from any of the major credit bureaus every year. These three major credit companies that track, as well as report an individual’s credit history are the TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. People who would like to track their credit score for free or get a copy of their free annual credit report are given the opportunity to do so; unfortunately, a lot of US residents have been having problems regarding this issue.

This is mostly due to the fact that a lot of unscrupulous people are putting up fake websites that aim to trick people into paying for a copy of their credit score. Because the three nationwide consumer reporting companies are also partially involved, getting free annual credit reports has been more difficult. If you are looking for your own financial information and would like to request for a copy of your report, here is a guide on how to do just that.

Credit Report – What is it for

Application for credit report has many reasons. One of the most important reasons is that it is a means of identity theft monitoring. Identity theft protection is essential to avoid any negative impact on your public record information. Application for credit report allows you to ensure that all your personal information is correct since it is a very important factor in applying for credit cards or loans. Most of the time, people find mistakes on their credit reports after receiving a copy of the report.

Never Pay for something that you are Already Entitled To

The nationwide consumer reporting companies are required to provide a copy of a free credit report every year to all residents of the United States. This means that each and every US consumer does not need to pay anyone to send you a free credit report since the consumer reporting companies will provide the service at no cost.

While there may be a lot of companies offering the service of getting you a copy of your report, this does not mean they’ll do it for free. Do not be lulled into a false offer from pop-up advertisements on the World Wide Web. In order to avoid being scammed by these fake websites, the first thing you should know is where to get your free credit report every year. And it is only through the three major consumer reporting companies.

Services through the World Wide Web

Many websites on the Internet are misleading when it comes to providing free credit reports advice. If you were to type “free credit report” on any search engine, most sites listed are those that offer credit monitoring services instead of performing a free credit report for you.

While these services for credit monitoring have their own functions, such as preventing identity theft, they are still used as a scheme for getting people to pay with the expectation of getting a copy of their credit report for free. A lot more worse than sites offering credit monitoring services are websites used for phishing, which steals personal information such as social security number, which are then used for identity theft.

Always Ignore Spam Messages

Spam messages are the greatest source of phishing sites, and these messages are always sent to everyone’s emails. Contents of spam messages may seem that they will provide you with a free credit report, but this will never happen. Yes, there are still websites that offer to perform a free credit report, but not every advertisement that will go into your email are advertisements of these honest websites.

There are also websites stating that they will give a copy of your report in exchange for personal information such as your social security number and your credit card information. Avoid these websites because after reading the fine print they will provide you, you will notice that there is a statement saying that you authorized them to charge your credit card account for their credit monitoring services.

Where to Go to Acquire a Copy of your Report

In order to prevent identity theft or any other problems, the solution is to know where to go to for you to get your free annual credit report. According to the website of the Free Credit Report, there is only one legal website that has been authorized to provide free annual credit reports without being scammed. This website states that the nation’s consumer protection agency, which is the Federal Trade Commission, has only authorized one website, and this website is the annualcreditreport.com.

The annualcreditreport.com provides a copy of your report for free from each of the credit reporting bureaus namely Experian, TransUnion and Equifax every twelve months. This website is the only site that offers a truly free credit report. Not only is this the only legitimate website that performs a free service, the website is also easy to use.

Tips in Applying for a Credit Report through the Website

Ensure that you have correctly spelled out the website of annualcreditreport.com since a lot of the fake and phishing sites are almost spelled exactly the same way. In the application process, it is better to wait for some time in between passing out your credit report request form. This way, you will be able to see any changes made that may occur over the passing time. Download and print all your credit reports immediately because you might no longer have access to the free credit report at a later time.