Do you need to know your credit score?
AnnualCreditReport.com is a free, easy way to find out your credit score and get an idea of what it means for you. You can also use this site to check your credit report and see any changes that may have occurred in the past year.
Understanding your financial well-being starts with knowing what’s on your credit report. Why spend hundreds of dollars to find out what’s on your credit report and FICO score when it only costs $0.00?
Keep reading as we review AnnualCreditReport.com and let you know if it’s legit.
Why Do I Need to get My Credit Report?
What’s on your credit report is vital to determining whether or not you’ll get approved for loans, mortgages, and even jobs. Your credit report is also used by lenders that determine what interest rates they can offer you when it comes time for financing.
If you want the best of the best in terms of interest, then having good credit is a must.
Many people with bad credit don’t realize it until they’re turned down for that dream job or loan. These people then spend years and thousands of dollars to try and AnnualCreditReport.com to get back into the positions and circumstances in which they were in before their poor financial choices.
Even worse, some people have good credit but find out their score is much lower than they thought it should be. A poor financial decision made years ago can come back to haunt you and cause your credit score to plummet.
There is no way around the need to be informed about what’s on your credit report. If you have bad or good credit, AnnualCreditReport.com lets you know how it affects your life so that you can plan accordingly.
What is AnnualCreditReport.com?
Federal law allows anyone to pull a free credit report annually. This means you can pull your Experian credit report, Equifax credit report and TransUnion credit report each year at no cost to you.
AnnualCreditReport.com is a website that provides you with one free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies every year.
You can visit this page anytime to get your annual free report or to see your current credit score, which is done by one of the three major credit bureaus.
The site ensures that you get your reports and scores by making it a one-stop-shop for all three bureaus and their services.
Since the credit bureaus themselves sponsor AnnualCreditReport.com, they do not pose any danger of scamming your information. Although there are many different credit reporting companies out there, this site makes it easy to get your hands on the information that you want.
How Do I Use AnnualCreditReport.com?
Getting your financial information is not something that most people typically do. So there are a few steps you will have to take to get the reports you need.
You can visit AnnualCreditReport.com any time of year to get your free credit report and score. The site works on any device, including phones, PCs, laptops, and tablets.
First, you will have to fill out a form to get your credit report. You can sign up for this by entering your personal information such as date of birth, name, social security number, email address, home phone number, mobile phone number with area code.
Once you have signed up, you can click the next button. This will prompt you to visit each Experian, TransUnion or Equifax. Once you’ve selected the credit report, it will take you to the credit bureau’s website.
You’ll need to answer some security questions for each credit bureau to access the credit report.
Pro Tip: Once you have access to the report, print or save the report as you won’t have access to it after you’ve viewed it.
Once you’ve saved the report, you can select “Return to AnnualCreditReport” to view the next credit report. Then, simply repeat the steps outlined until all reports are accessed.
What to Do With Your Report
What should you do with your credit report now that you have your credit report? How can you use this information for something beneficial?
As mentioned before, the reports provide a lot of insight into how well you are doing financially. They go further than just telling you how much debt you may have; but they tell you how much credit you have and what type of debt you hold. Knowing all this information can be a great way to make better financial choices and improve your life.
There are many things that people use these reports for, such as:
- Organizing their finances
- Lowering their interest rates
- Building credit history
- Start to build positive credit score history
The number one thing that most people use these reports is organizing their finances. Unfortunately, many people do not know how much debt they have or what type of debts they hold until it’s too late.
Now that you have access to this information, you can take the time to plan out your financial future and ensure that you are making optimal choices when it comes to everything from a credit card to loans.
Pros and Cons of AnnualCreditReport.com
As always, there are pros and cons to everything. No service is perfect, and while the service is free, you may be missing some features that you would typically get from a paid service.
Pros
- Free service to get your credit report from the three major bureaus.
- Easy to navigate website that is designed with you in mind
- Only site that all 3 credit bureaus sponsor
Cons
- Credit Score not included
- You can only get one free report every twelve months per bureau (During COVID, weekly access is allowed)
- Does not offer other services such as credit monitoring service or credit rating.
Is AnnualCreditReport a Legitimate Site?
This is a question that many people ask. After all, there are plenty of imitators online who appear to offer the same service as AnnualCreditReport.com.
The site itself is owned by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, which means they pay for their slots on this website. This costs them millions but also helps to provide free access to this information for everyone. You can’t get a better endorsement than that, and there is no other site on the internet that provides these reports and joint support from all three major credit bureaus.
I tried it out and found it to be easy to use. In addition, the site takes you to the major credit bureaus, which helped ease any concern of fraud or imposters taking your information. Overall, AnnualCreditReport is a fantastic and legitimate website for accessing your credit reports.
5 Reasons to Review Your Credit Report
Below are some of the main reasons you’ll want to pull your credit report:
Prevent identity theft. Your credit report contains your Social Security number and other personally identifying information, so monitoring that criminals aren’t using it is important.
Own a Home or Car. If you’re planning on taking out a loan for a house or vehicle anytime soon, you’ll need your score to qualify. This report helps lenders determine whether or not they should trust you with a loan. You can review your credit report to see if there is any negative information you can address before applying for a home or auto loans.
You Plan on Applying for a New Job. Especially if you’re hoping to be hired by an employer who will do background checks, they’ll check your credit report before hiring you (and may not even call you back). So you don’t want any surprises after the fact.
There’s Something Fishy Going On. If you notice any suspicious new accounts or a hard inquiry you never made on your credit report, you’ll want to contact the creditor and ensure that these aren’t fraudulent holdings. Pulling your credit report is a great way to stay on top of any fraud alerts. So for instance if you notice a new credit account was opened in your name in your Experian credit file or TransUnion report, you’ll want to take swift action and call the credit agency to resolve it.
Review Any Errors. Every so often, a credit report will contain errors. These can be as simple as a misspelled name or social security number to more complex errors such as the wrong address listed for you. Even if it’s not an error that affects your score right now, it could do at any point in the future, and you want to make sure that these are addressed as soon as possible.
AnnualCreditReport.com FAQ
Is it safe to provide my Social Security Number?
Your Social Security number is safe because it’s being sent to a secure website. In addition, all 3 credit bureaus use the same website, so you’re not at risk for identity theft or other concerns.
What should I do if my report contains inaccurate information?
You should follow the steps provided on this site to retrieve an updated version of your credit report. If there is still inaccurate information on this report, you can directly dispute it with the credit bureau.
Will I be able to check my score?
A free credit score is not provided through this site, but if you need to find out your score, you can visit the credit bureaus to get them. That said, there may be a fee.
How often can I pull my report?
You are only allowed to pull your report once every twelve months. This is true whether you’re using this site, pulling it through any other service, or by mail. That said, during COVID, they allow you to pull your credit report weekly.
Where do I start if I have questions about the website?
If you have questions about this website, online privacy policy, and fair information practices, you can contact them at Central Source LLC, P.O. Box 105283, Atlanta, GA 30348-5283, or contact them via form submission at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/contactUs.action.
Why is my credit report free?
Your credit report is free because it’s required by the federal government. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT) was passed in 2003 to create laws which would protect American citizens’ personal information.
This act states that you’re allowed to pull your credit reports every twelve months for free. It also states that any company which uses your credit report must be providing you with the same opportunity to view and correct it for free. This ensures that you can check your reports, correct any mistakes, and dispute any errors at no cost to you.
The Federal Trade Commission is responsible for enforcing these laws while the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ensures that financial companies treat the consumer fairly.
Conclusion
AnnualCreditReport.com is a legitimate website that provides free access to your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus. The site is easy to use, and you can be assured that your information is safe.
Reasons to review your credit report include preventing identity theft, qualifying for a loan, applying for a new job, and catching any errors on your report. if you are in the process of trying to improve your credit, pulling a copy of your credit report is the first step.
If you have any questions about AnnualCreditReport.com or online privacy policy and fair information practices, you can contact them using the form submission on their website.
If you are looking for a great way to get all your credit reports in one place at no cost, then its a good idea to get your free annual credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com is a great site to consider.
