You are entitled to get a free credit report. How can you get your credit report without getting scammed?
Your credit report is used by lenders to determine whether or not you’re a credit risk. Depending on what’s on your report, you might qualify for the loan or you might not (or you might be given a higher interest rate to compensate for the risk.)
Credit scores vs credit reports
First and foremost, there’s a difference between a credit report and a credit score. The credit report is a list of your financial dealings, usually reported by lenders. Credit reports come from a credit report agency such as Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion.
The credit score is a number that is calculated based on the information in the credit report. The way this is calculated is proprietary. In the United States, this called the FICO score, and it’s a number between 300 and 850 with the higher numbers representing better creditworthiness. The three agencies have their own scores, but they’re not quite the same as FICO.
How do I get my free credit report?
You are entitled to get a free credit report from the credit reporting agencies, but you are not entitled to the credit score. If you want a score, you usually have to pay for it.
To get your free credit report:
To order, visit annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. The form is on the back of this brochure; or you can print it from ftc.gov/credit. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually. They are providing free annual credit reports only through annualcreditreport.com, 1-877-322-8228, and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.
You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time. The law allows you to order one free copy of your report from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months.
(source: FTC)