Help Me Find My Credit Report

I get asked often by people how to find my credit report, or where can I find my credit report. There are actually three main ways that you can find your credit report and two of those methods are totally without cost. Having your credit report can be very useful as you’ll need to know what is on there, good and bad for the next time that you want to finance something. It is true that there may be inaccurate information on your credit report and that you can get it fixed if you know that it’s there. In fact, its fair to say that most credit reports contain inaccurate information that should be fixed by the consumer.

Can I find my credit report? You can. It’s actually quite an easy process and a free one if you use one of the two methods that I am going to outline. First, you can go to the website set up by the credit bureaus to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act that gives you access to one free credit report from all three bureaus, Experian, Transunion and Equifax, once per year.   The website is www.annualcreditreport.com and you can simply enter and verify your information and you will be able to look at your credit report online.

Are there any other ways to find my free credit report? For a free report, there is another way. Apply for something and get denied. Anytime that you are denied credit based upon your credit report you have a right to obtain a free copy of said report so that you can see what the negative information was that got you denied. When you are denied for something you should receive some mail telling you how to do this about a week after applying for whatever it is that you were trying to finance. Simply follow the instructions to obtain your free report.

How can I find out my credit report score?  You can see your score on your credit report when you access it. It will be a number from 300 to 850. Anything around 600 is considered borderline credit and anything above 650 is considered good credit. Great credit is 750 and above. On the other side of the score, 575 is considered fair credit and anything below 550 is poor credit. If you have a score that is below 500 then you have abysmal credit and will not even be able to get financed for a hamburger from that place with the golden arches.

Are there any other ways to access my credit report? If you choose you can pay for a credit report service. I use one, and it is around 20 bucks a month to view a copy of my credit report any time I choose. I find it very useful when I am financing something to see how it is affecting my score and to see how I can increase the points that I am gaining by paying on time. These are the ways to get a copy of your credit report so that you can view it to see if everything is accurate or fix any negative information or see how a new account that you have is affecting your credit score.