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Free credit reports are almost as common as bread and peanut butter. The explosion of offers in this regard does not replace the possible need for paid monitoring services.

However, obtaining your free credit report is your right. This is your right as of an amendment of the Free Credit Reporting Act of 2003.

The main reason this new amendment of the FCRA was added by the government to ensure that all Americans have the right to stay informed. This gives people an opportunity to learn what the three credit reporting bureaus are saying about you.

All this is done without you having to pay for it. This has been done to help combat identity theft, since fraud and errors on credit reports are so common today.

The goal of this new government act is to ensure that Americans have the right to stay informed about what these three credit reporting bureaus say about then. Yet, at the same time it gives them the right to do so without having to pay for the information.

Obtaining your Records

You can request a free copy of your credit report within a 12 month period from one of the major financial bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

If you don’t really plan to subscribe to the service, it is important that you cancel the trial subscription, or else it would automatically be billed to your account. In that case, you should remember the termination date of your trial period.

You can also get your files at Annual Credit Report.com. This is one of the safest and most reliable locations to obtain your free documents. This site is actually regulated by the federal government and it also is monitored by the three credit bureaus.

You also can find these documents via other websites. You should make sure that it has the official saying that indicates you are not at the Annual Credit Report.com site.

Your Rights

You should be able to obtain your free credit report without any hassle. You can report a private monitoring service if they try to make you pay for these documents.

Now, you should beware that you do not get a free credit score, but only a free credit report. Therefore, you still have the chance of experiencing hassles in that way.

At the same time, you should make sure you take advantage of what you are entitled to and do not have to pay for up front. The only time you really have to pay is if you seek out additional credit alert and monitoring services other than the free ones provided by law.

The credit score is a number based on credit report statistics. It is a brief account of the creditworthiness of a person and it helps determine whether that person is eligible for financing. It also is necessary to determine how well a person is at paying off monthly obligations.

Usually the number of a person’s credit score is based on information on file with certain credit bureaus. It is a number that is often used by lenders such as banks and credit card companies to determine how credit worthy a person really is.

Other companies that use a person’s credit score to determine how trustworthy they are with money include the following:

• Mobile phone companies
• Insurance companies
• Employers
• Landlords
• Internet service providers
• Retail stores

In just about any situation such as when a person applies for a “90 day same as cash” loan to pay off furniture a credit check is often done. This often requires a look at a person’s credit score in order to determine if a person could truly pay off a loan within 90 days.

Interpretations

The most common and most valuable credit score interpretation is FICO. This is a number that typically ranges from 350 to 850. The number 723 is the median FICO score for Americans, and is considered above average/excellent.

Anyone that has a credit score ranging from 620 to 640 is considered a person who has a pretty good credit. Anyone below 620 is considered someone with fair to poor credit.

This FICO number is based on a variety of aspects such as:

• Outstanding debts
• Debt to income ratio
• Number of open accounts
• Number of inquiries

Other types of credit scores used today are the Experian PLUS scores which range from 330 to 830 and the VantageScore which ranges from 501 to 990. The concept is pretty much the same as the FICO number range and it is a measure of a person’s creditworthiness.