The three major credit bureaus; Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion are required to furnish everyone that has a credit history with a free credit report annually. This is a way for everyone to see their credit activity. However, a credit report is different than your credit score. You won’t find your credit score on your free credit report, not because it’s a free one, but because credit reports don’t show this and are entirely different.
Update: Due to COVID-19, credit reports are issued for every week so that taxpayers can be up to date with their credit history in these hard times.
The only way to get a free credit report is through the Annual Credit Report. You can get one credit report per year. For example, if you’ve got your first free credit report in March of 2023, you’ll need to wait for at least 365 days – March 2024 – to get your free annual credit report.
How to get my free annual credit report online?
AnnualCreditReport.com is the only place you can get your free annual credit report. It’s authorized by the federal government and don’t look for another place that claims to offer you your free annual credit report. Getting your report online is easy and takes little to no time. Head over to the Annual Credit Report and verify your identity through the authentication process. By getting it online, you’ll get your free annual credit report immediately.
How to get my free annual credit report by mail?
To get a free annual credit report by mail, you will need to request it to your address. There are two ways to go about this. You can either request by calling or by filling out and mailing the request form. Since calling will take less time than preparing a request form, that’s what we suggest doing. Whether you mail a request form or order by phone, it will take about 15 days for your free annual credit report to reach you.
Free annual credit report request phone number is 1-877-322-8228.
Mail free annual credit report request form to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Since the request form is sent to a P.O. box, you cannot use private delivery services such as UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. Mail your request form with US Postal Services.
Is Annual Credit Report safe?
Annual Credit Report is completely safe and authorized by the federal government. When using the Annual Credit Report to get your free annual credit report, you don’t need to worry about getting your information stolen or anything like that. You can check finance communities on Reddit to better understand and read your credit report to get some ideas.
Does Annual Credit Report show credit score?
Your credit report shows credit activity, not your credit score. Although there are other ways to check credit score for free, your credit report will show activity in your credit, such as opening and closing new lines of credit, remaining balances, and more.
Will Annual Credit Report hurt my credit score?
There is no reason or logical explanation behind that obtaining a credit report through the Annual Credit Report will hurt your credit score. The credit reports from the Annual Credit Report are from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. These major credit bureaus are required by federal law to furnish a copy of your credit report for free annually. To comply with this law, there is Annual Credit Report where you can obtain them, and there is no reason as to why it should hurt your credit score.