Credit Report Basics

Keeping up with your credit reports is essential for anyone who is serious about their financial well-being. They may be the only way for you to detect if your identity has been stolen. This article will show you how to get them three times per year, for free, with no strings attached.

What is a Credit Report?

Let’s start with the basics on this one. You can get a credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Transunion, and Equifax. Credit reports will show you all of the credit accounts (including loans of any kind) that you have open at any time or have had open and your payment record by month for each.

What is a Credit Score?

As stated by annualcreditreport.com, “A credit score is a complex mathematical model that evaluates many types of information in a credit file. A credit score is used by a lender to help determine whether a person qualifies for a particular credit card, loan, or service. Most credit scores estimate the risk a company incurs by lending a person money or providing them with a service and determining specifically, the likelihood that the person will make payments on time in the next two to three years. Generally, the higher the score, the less risk the person represents.” The method that I highlight below will be for free credit reports, not credit scores. You can’t get your credit scores for free. If you’re looking to see what your credit score is, I’d recommend using MyFico.

When Should I Use a Credit Report and when Should I Use a Credit Score?

I would recommend using a credit report three times annually from each of the three major credit agencies to see if anyone has falsely opened an account under your identity or if there are any items that you should dispute (i.e. misinformation about a missed payment). I would suggest using credit scores only if you are about a year or less out from potentially buying a home or starting a business.

Opt for Annualcreditreport.com Versus Freecreditreport.com

I’m sure you’ve all heard the catchy jingles on the commercials for ‘freecreditreport.com’. Not to mention the very intuitive domain name. What those jingles don’t tell you is that getting your ‘free’ Experian credit report automatically enrolls you into their credit monitoring service for $14.95 per month. This is a for-profit company, folks. On the other hand, ‘annualcreditreport.com‘ is the official website created by Experian, Equifax, and Transunion to get you your free credit reports (no strings attached) as mandated by the federal government. ‘Freecreditreport.com’ has the catchy jingle and their marketing down pat, but the unpublicized ‘annualcreditreport.com’ is where you’ll want to get your report.

Rotate to Get Three Free Credit Reports Per Year

If you plan accordingly, you can get three free reports on ‘annualcreditreport.com’ via each of the three agencies per year. Here is an example on how to do this. Let’s say on Feb. 1 you get your free Experian Report. Fast forward four months on your calendar, and leave a note on your calendar to get your free report on June 1 from Transunion. Fast forward another four months to Oct. 1 and get your report from Equifax. Next, mark one day post those dates on next years calendar with the same agencies, and you’re set.

Note that these are

Have you caught any discrepancies in your report that you’ve had to dispute?

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