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annualcreditreport.com

17 years ago

Just wondering if anyone ever uses this?

I'm extremely leery of divulging personal info online, but I'd like to know my credit score and this place supposedly has reports from the three major credit reporting firms.

Says you can get a copy of your report free once a year.

Cream

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Comments (10)

seattlemike
17 years ago
There are lots of such services. I just happened to find this article that rated and compared many of them. I can't vouch for the article itself, but it seemed legit to me. Hope it helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Various Credit Report Services Rated
western_pa_luann
17 years ago
Yep, you can get free reports at that site.

I stagger them so that I get one every 4 months from one of the bureaus.

DO NOT sign up for any monthly program... unless you want to. The yearly report is FREE!
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Get your free annual credit reports from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ But DON'T pay any attention to the credit scores! They are fakos (just a guesstimate and can be off by as much as 100 points!) And yes, you should pull your credit reports from all three bureaus! Click on the links and it will basically walk you through it. Be prepared to answer verification questions about loans, payments and such. If you enter the wrong info, you will have to then get them by mail, possibly. To pull all three credit reports after getting the freebies, you can go with either http://www.truecredit.com for 14.95 per month (you are allowed to update reports every 24hrs and 1min). Another place to get them with your real fico scores are http://www.myfico.com I'm on the free forums there at myfico and absolutely love it!
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Hi Mare, Checking your credit on a scheduled regularity is just as important to your safety & wealth as having dental & physical checkups is to your health. You can get your basic account reports for free directly from each of the three major bureaus (Transperian, Equifax and Experian.) You'll want to get a full tri-merge report that includes your actual credit scores (3 total per person, one from each bureau,) and the 'reason codes' (4 per score) that detail why each score is calculated as far below the perfect 850 as it is. These are basically only available through a mortgage loan officer (usually a broker,) so having a good relationship there is a healthy/wealthy idea. Luck! Dave Donhoff Strategic Equity & Mortgage Planner
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It is a great story, but none of those things you mentioned have anything to do with what I was talking about. None of things I talked about have ANYTHING to do with how much money you make, or how much you spend, nor how important having things is to you. The math works the same for a trash collector and a doctor. Given two scenarios, both assume you have the cash available - (1) Pay cash for your home and cars, (2) Use low interest loans for your house and cars. The second scenario is more financially sound right now. I am not saying that will always be the case but lets take a look at the math right now. Let's take a worst case scenario, you only make $25,000 per year. Your rich uncle died and left you $125,000. You are deciding between paying 25k down and financing 100k, or paying 125k and financing none. Suppose you are super conservative because you are broke, so you only want to invest in very safe municipal bonds, and a 15 year mortgage. Over the next 15 years your payments will total $124,304.70 on your house and your distributions from the municipal bonds will be $148,450.00. You have just created wealth out of thin air and you are at less risk with investment than you are with the house. Houses go down a lot more often than properly diversified portfolios. The added bonus is, suppose something goes tragically wrong with your life. Houses are important but you can't eat them. You can't just use the funds of the house to get back on your feet if you can't work for 4 months, but you can with the investment. Now suppose you are willing to take a bit more risk, so you go 50% municipal bonds and 50% equity securities, staying broad market funds (you are still very conservative.) You will still pay $124,304.70, but now your distributions are $191,725.00. You are creating even more wealth and are still extremely safe. Now assume you can let the funds compound, because you make enough money to make your house payment without using any of your originally invested funds or the distributions. Now sticking with the second method investments (you will take a little more risk as you can make the payments) you get $249,658. You now have double what you paid. I am ignoring the mortgage interest deduction because you don't even pay taxes at this income. Also I am ignoring the lower interest you get on cars but that would only help the calculation. I am not talking about spending habits or anything else. I specifically said low interest rate financing. I put everything on my credit card and it has been probably 10 years since I paid a single penny in interest. I drive a brand new car, I stay in cars 3 years old or less and the total amount I pay over 10 years for all 3.3 of my $54,000 cars is $45,500. Being financially savvy is not a function of how much money you make, it is a function of educating yourself. Admittedly, as an accounting and finance professor (who left his high paying corporate job to return to school for a job I love) I may be more educated than most, but I am willing to share.
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I wanted to share a couple other ways your identy/money can be stolen. Both happened to me. By the way, I'm really sorry you've gone through this. It is so frustrating. It seems like the majority of id theft is from credit cards. This first one happened years ago, when this was a relatively new crime, but it wasn't credit. Someone took my name and driver's licence number and the account number of a closed checking account. Then they created a new account and went shopping, at Sears, Macy's, Home Depot, and Victoria's Secret. All in one day. They almost got cought at VS, which ended their shopping spree. I believe they got over $3,000 in merchandise. It was a NIGHTMARE trying to convince all the different agencies and stores that I wasnt the thief. I didn't lose any money, but my driver's license number is still flagged with telecheck. Sixteen years later. BTW, after I made contact with Macy's to explain the situation, Macy's started billing me for the $900 purchase. We had a pretty heated conversation about how they wouldn't even have my information if I hadn't called them to do the right thing. The other was just a couple years ago. I was going over my bank statement and saw a payment to a cell phone company that we don't use. I checked a few monthes prior and noticed I had been paying someone elses bills. Cell phone and the utility bills. The utility bill was easy to miss because I use the same company. It was the cell bill that tipped me off. Someone used the account and routing number off a check one of us wrote and was paying her bills online. Once I cought it, I called the bank PG&E, and Verizon and had everything taken care of. The utility companies went after her on their own, so I don't know the outcome. There was a name on the accounts, but I was told it was probably fake. So anyway, these are just a couple more areasto consider and keep an eye on. Also, Sears can be kinda shifty. I would still be a little suspicious of them. I would not put it past them to issue you an unsolicited credit card. On the off chance that you accept it. It doesn't make much sense for a credit thief to have the card sent to your house. Unless, they were watching your house hoping to intercept your mail
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babs77
17 years ago
CreamPlease, this is the website (annualcreditreport.com) that is an authorized site per the FTC. Do not use any other, unless as Western PA says, you want to pay for it. It is now federal law that you do NOT have to pay for your credit report.

Per the link below: "Important information from the Federal Trade Commission, the nationÂs consumer protection agency: annualcreditreport.com is the ONLY authorized online source for you to get a free credit report under federal law. You can get a free report from each of the three national credit reporting companies every 12 months. Some other sites claim to offer "free" credit reports, but may charge you for another product if you accept a "free" report."

It is a secure site and I and DH have used it for 3 or 4 years now. However, please be aware that you can't get your credit SCORE for free, only your credit report. However there are ways to find out your credit score for free -- I asked a few years ago while at a dealership leasing a vehicle. They ran my score and I asked what it was. DH did the same about two years ago when we were thinking about re-financing our mortgage. Some are willing to tell you what your score is...

Here is a link that might be useful: FTC link re annualcreditreport.com
outinthecountry
17 years ago
Cream, I've used the annualcreditreport.com site for several years, and like someone else suggested, request a copy every 4 mos from a different credit bureau on a rotating basis. If you're not comfortable doing it over the internet, there's a link where you can print a form and mail it off to them. Your credit report will come in the mail pretty quickly. They're very reliable.
Tammy
cream_please
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Appreciate it...
Cream
joyfulguy
17 years ago
Memo to Canadians,

Do you know whether there may be a similar officially sanctioned site in Canada where we can access our credit reports?

Thanks.

ole joyful
seattlemike
17 years ago
I could use some help from those who are using annualcreditreport.com. Based on the comments here, I tried that site but kept getting into signing up for a free 30-day period, followed by an automatic $15.95 per month unless I cancelled. Have I "missed a turn", so to speak? I could use some specific directions on how to set things up without going thru the payment-cancellation drill, if that's at all possible. TIA
babs77
17 years ago
Mike, although they do offer additional information for a one-time or monthly charge, your report itself is free. Go to annualcreditreport.com and select your current state and click Request Report. You will be required to enter your full name, current address, DOB, SSN and your last previous address. Then select Continue. You can then choose from any of the 3 reporting agencies (or all 3). You'll then be connected to the one (or first of the 3) that you selected and you'll get some prompts for some $$ offers but just keep selecting "No, Thanks" button (or the equivalent).

HTH. Post back if you're still not sure how to by-pass these additional offers.
babs77
17 years ago
OJ, I researched your question and it looks like you can obtain a free credit report in Canada, but not on-line (only through the mail). They don't make it as obvious or easy to find as here in the US.

TransUnion of Canada:
http://www.transunion.ca/ca/personal/creditreport/consumerdisclosure/mail_en.page
Click on the "Download and complete form" link.

Equifax Canada:
http://www.equifax.com/EFX_Canada/consumer_information_centre/faqs_e.html#ques5
Click on "How can I get a copy of my credit report?" then click the "request form" link.
seattlemike
17 years ago
babs77: Many thanks for your reply. I'll give it another try tomorrow and will holler if I get stuck. Thanks again!

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