Check Your Credit Score - for Free!

As of 2005, consumers may obtain a free report from each of the three credit bureaus every 12 months. To monitor your score, select one of the following bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—and every four months, as one of them for your free credit score. In the second four months, ask a different bureau for your free credit score, and four months later, do the same with the third bureau. As long as you request the credit score from each bureau only once every 12 months, you can receive their report free!

Why is this important? The US Public Interest Research Group found in one study that up to 79% of credit reports contain errors, including duplications and other problems. Some are serious enough to negatively affect a consumer’s opportunity to obtain credit. By monitoring your report, you can check to see that errors have been corrected that you have discovered! When a bureau is told of an error on their report, they have 45 days to correct the problem; most do so within 15 days. However, the same error can appear in different reports; thus, monitoring one’s credit report throughout the year by checking each of the bureaus’ reports can reduce the likelihood that a discrepancy will continue to appear.

To report a problem with your credit report, call toll-free: 877-322-8228 or write a letter to the Annual Credit Report Request Service, PO Box 105281, Atlanta GA 30348-5281. Even faster is to report and dispute an inaccuracy via the following website: www.annualcreditreport.com. This site is secure and thus safe to provide personal information on the authentication form sent to you to report recent transactions, the size of outstanding loans, and the like. Once authenticated, your credit report will appear onscreen. Do not close the window without first printing off the report. When you close the window, the report is gone and along with it, the opportunity for your free report!

One other thing: husbands and wives are viewed as individuals; thus, each spouse may obtain a free report from each of the credit bureaus in a given 12-month period. Finally, a personal query is considered a “soft” pull, and thus does not reduce one’s credit score.