Obtaining a Free Credit Report

There are many ways to get a free copy of your credit report.

All credit bureaus are required to give out one free credit report per year. You can order your free annual credit report online at www.annualcreditreport.com, by calling 877-322-8228, or by completing the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mailing it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. When you order, you need to provide your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. To verify your identity, you may need to provide some information that only you would know, like the amount of your monthly mortgage payment.

Note: The Credit Bureaus are not required to give out your credit score for free.
If you want to order your score in addition to your free report it's about $5.95 per bureau. The free reports are good for 30 days only, so make sure you print your reports if you get them online. The other thing is that if you do any credit disputes after pulling your free report, the credit bureaus have 45 days instead of 30 days to pull your credit reports. Nothing is ever really free, is it? This could mean the difference, in all seriousness, in getting a deletion because of the extra time they have to "investigate".

Beware! There are some web sites out there who are posing as the free annual credit report site who are engaged in fraudulent activities.