Free Personal Credit Check

You’ve probably seen companies on television or radio offering a totally free credit check. However, there really is only one or two ways to get an absolutely free credit check. The companies require that you enroll in their credit monitoring or some other type of program to get the ‘free’ credit report and then pay monthly for that service until you cancel. While their service may be perfectly fine, there are, in fact a couple of way to actually get a credit report at no cost to you whatsoever. You just have to know what they are.

First, let’s discuss why you personal credit report should be of interest to you. You may have information on your credit report that affects in negatively that is incorrect, or you may have something that is completely accurate but easy to fix that would bring your credit score up a lot higher than it is. An online credit check can let you look at your credit history as a finance company sees it, as well as who has looked at your credit report and what your scores are. You’ll also know if someone is using your identity or not by looking at your credit report.

The first method of getting your credit report is by applying for something and getting turned down. If your credit is perfect then this may be a problem. The law requires that you are provided with a copy of your credit report if turned down for credit, if you ask for it within the period of time allowed. This is why each time you apply and are turned down for something you will receive a letter in the mail from the credit grantor explaining that you were turned down and it will have the address to contact to get a copy of your credit report.

The second method you don’t even have to apply for anything to use. This is the truly free credit report that is allowed, every 12 months, by law. The official website to get this free report is www.annualcreditreport.com. As long as you haven’t had a credit report from the site in the past 12 months you can request a free credit report from all the credit bureaus, Equifax, Transunion and Experian. You’ll need to verify your information to receive the report, either online in or in the mail, so be prepared to answer some questions about what might be on your report.

Once you have a copy of your credit report and have looked it over carefully you might be thinking that you need to fix it, if you have bad credit. Credit loans, mortgages or student loans may be listed on your credit report. In order to fix it, first dispute any information that is incorrect. The bureaus will contact the original creditor, and they will either be required to fix the entry so that is is accurate or remove it altogether if the creditor doesn’t respond to their request within thirty days. If it is an old debt, it’s possible that the creditor won’t respond and you will get it removed.