How to Get a Free Credit Report

Getting a copy of your credit report should be your first stop on the road to repairing your credit. Your credit card will let you know what debt you have out there and will give you an idea of what a lender would see if you went to apply for a loan.

A credit report is a register of a person’s credit history and is made up of four categories of data:

• Identification Data – also known as the credit header data, this part includes name, address, social security number, and date of birth.
• Credit History – this contains a person’s payment history and shows account status, credit limit or credit balance, monthly payment information etc.
• Public Records – this part of the report contains data on court judgments, tax liens, bankruptcies, and collections.
• Inquiries – this section contains information about all other organisations or individuals who have looked at the file and for what purpose in the past six months.

How you can get a free credit report:

You can get a free copy of your credit report if were denied credit. You will get a letter with an explanation of why you were turned down with information on how you can contact the credit bureaus used to get your free report.

The three major credit bureaus are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The three are not equal. One may have all of your credit information while another may have very little or none at all. It just depends on if your lenders give information to all three credit reports bureaus or just one or two.

You may be able to get a free credit report if you have been a victim of fraud. Write to the credit bureau explaining what happened and request a free copy of your report. A note will be added to your credit report stating you requested a copy due to fraud.

By law you can get a free credit report from each of the credit bureaus each year. Visit www.annualcreditreport.com to get a free copy from each credit bureau.

You can purchase a 3-in-1 report which is basically getting all three reports from each of the credit bureaus. If you have used up your free credit reports or if you want to be able to check it month by month, then you can pay to see your reports.