Free Credit Report

There are two ways to get a free credit report that we know of. 

The first method is to apply for any type of credit and then take advantage of your legal right to see your credit report.  You have 60 days– from the time your credit is pulled– to request a free copy.

If you apply for credit, you can get a free copy of your credit report whether you are denied or approved.  The credit bureaus only know that your credit has been pulled; they don’t know whether or not you have been denied.

If you are denied credit, you will get a letter in the mail that says something like this:

Dear Applicant- Thank you for your recent application. Your request for a loan was carefully considered, and we regret that we are unable to approve your application at this time, for the following reasons.

[ Reason you were denied credit ]

You do, however, have a right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to know the information contained in your credit file. You also have a right to a free copy of your report from the reporting agency, if you request it no later than 60 days after you receive this notice.

If you have applied for any type of credit in the last 60 days, you can get a free copy of your report even if you don’t receive a letter like the one above.  Just send a written request to all three of the agencies listed below.  (It is important to send a letter to all three credit reporting bureaus, because some lenders may use one credit bureau and another lender may use another- or all three.)

Equifax
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
1-800-685-1111

Experian
P.O. Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013
1 888 397 3742

Trans Union
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-888-4213

The second method to obtain a free credit report is take advantage of the many offers of a free report available on the internet. 

Be careful with these offers however.  Every single one of them has a “catch” of some sort.  Everytime somebody pulls your credit, it costs them about $3.  No website can offer free credit reports without taking in some kind of revenue to cover their costs.

Most of the time, you will have to sign up for a credit monitoring service of some sort.