Credit Reports

[djk]

I am always told and always hear that I should check my credit report. I see the commercials that tell me to do so (i.e. freecreditreport.com). My bank statements even encourage me to do so with a little message on them.

One problem... I don't know the first thing about what I need to do to check my credit score!!!

How do I go about seeing my credit report?
Is it really free?
How often should I check it?

Thanks for any help.

[disneysteve]

The site to get a free credit report is NOT freecreditreport.com. That site gives you a "free" report but signs you up for a paid credit monitoring service. You can get your report free IF you cancel the service during the 30-day trial period.

The correct site for free reports is annualcreditreport.com. You can get one report per year from each of the 3 credit bureaus. What many people do is rotate and get one report every 4 months.

As for your credit score, you must pay for that. Go to myfico.com. Do not buy it from any other site as what you get may not be an actual FICO score.

You definitely should check your credit report regularly. You want to be sure it is accurate and correct any errors. You also want to monitor for identity theft.

As for your score, there is no general reason to know that unless you are going to be applying for credit in the immediate future such as getting a mortgage or auto loan or something. Some people like to buy their score once just to get a general idea of where they stand, but after that, I don't really see the point in spending the money.

[Runaway Finances]

Disneysteve,

I signed up for that freecreditreport.com. I had done the free annual credit report before and wanted to see what this freecreditreport.com site did as to informing you automatically. I did it for several months and it was actually pretty good. I cancelled it because I didn't think I really needed it and I had absolutely no trouble cancelling it. If you had a lot of activity on your credit report, then the service is nice because it emails you when any inquiry is made.

[ktmarvels]

I don't think the issue is with canceling it, but with the fact that they charge for the service and people may not be aware of that when they sign up. DH was one of those people, it took a couple months before we realized what the charge was, but we had no problems canceling it.

The only time I'd think monitoring your credit that carefully (receiving emails about all inquiries) would be useful if you feel you are at risk for identity theft. However, if you are really worried about this you can freeze your credit which is free (I think) and is more effective in actually preventing the theft (rather than reacting after it's happened).

[tmvijai]

there are other ways also

OK! annualcreditreport.com is one place you get the credit report free and not credit score as steve said. As he also mentioned that you can rotate every 4 months to get them from one bureau at a time.

There are indirect ways. When you apply for auto loan or mortgage, you can request the lender to give you report and score since they are going to pull it up. THey usually do it. I did it last month when I refinanced my loan and surprised to see my score to around 800's. You might be surprised to see it too. But it is always good to see what is in the report to start with.

Also you can sign up for freecreditreport.com and add a reminder in your calendar to cancel before 30days. I did that long time ago and never bother doing it. One more secret, all the 3 credit bureau run offers themselves and give away free FICO score for limited amount on limited period which I got to know from other blog. YOu can check there websites regularly, and might be lucky winner.

Credit Report and free credit score at Experian.com
Equifax: Credit Reports, Credit Scores, Protection Against Identity Theft
TransUnion - Check Your Credit Report and Credit Score Online, Instantly and Securely

[Radiance]

I personally like credit keeper

I can access my 3 credit reports and my three scores online at any time and how many times I like.

They send me an email on any change and a monthky email with a summary, even if it is to tell me no changes have been made.

I can print my credit reports and scores at any time and use them to negotiate credit without having my credit actually looked at.

It is 9.99 a month....I had let is expire but I restored my account after I read this post, I need to align some inconsistencies. My 3 reports look different with scores ranking from 660 - 720.

It has other included features but I haven't played with them.
They have a 30 day trial... I did read it was cumbersome to cancel with them, I don't know since I have never cancelled...

[boosami]

I had let is expire but I restored my account after I read this post, I need to align some inconsistencies. My 3 reports look different with scores ranking from 660 - 720.

The credit scores calculated by the 3 bureaus will never be the same, even if the exact same information is reported to each of them. They each use their own unique formula to calculate a FICO-like score. For example, Experian's credit score is called your PLUS score and the range is 330-830 (compared to the 300-850 range of your actual FICO).