Free Credit Report – Is Getting a Free Credit Report Safe?

The Free Credit Reporting Act entitles you to one free credit report every year. Now, this is quite important because you can never know how your credit score stands except you check it out. However, with a free credit score, you will only get an idea of what your credit score may be (you have to pay for your actual credit score). Checking your score will enable you to confirm that all the information is correct. This is very essential because one small mistake on your credit report can dent your credit score and potentially cause your rates to shoot up.

Who Offers a Free Credit Report

There are one place you can get your free, federally mandated credit reports, also known as “educational credit report”, which is AnnualCreditReport.com. Here, you can collect a free credit report from the three major consumer agencies in the U.S. “Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion”. These sites also offer credit reports, however, you are required to pay for them. At Annualcreditreport.com, you are given the option of getting all three reports at once or one at a time. It is advised that you get all three reports at once since you don’t know which report a lender will go for when you apply for a loan.

Note, however, that these companies will give you a free credit report and/or credit score initially. But will also most likely ask for your credit card number. Where you fail to cancel within a certain time, you’ll be charged for form.

Is Getting a Free Credit Report Safe?

When you check your credit report it is called a soft inquiry. Also, you can check your credit as much as you want and it won’t affect your credit score negatively.

Checking your credit report regularly will help you in making good money decisions.  it will help you detect signs of identity theft early enough.

When you check your credit report, you will be seeing the same type of details that lenders see when you want to know your credit. This is because your credit report captures the financial details that lenders use to know you can collect more money. This includes the type of credit accounts, current balances, payment history, as well as any bad items that you may have. You also get a summary of your account totals, total debt, and personal details.

You stay updated as the information in your credit report is frequently being added, updated, or deleted. Typically, account information is updated every month, and each account may be updated on different days. However negative items like collections and debts may take a month to pop up.

When you monitor your credit, it helps you detect possible fraud early enough.  This can help you prevent surprises when you apply for credit. You will know when new inquiries, new accounts, public records, fraud alerts, and personal details updates.

By checking your credit report, you can review and correct wrong on your credit report.

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