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Sometimes when seeking a free credit report it helps to learn a little bit about the resources available to you. One of these is Annual Credit Report.com.

Background Info

Annual Credit Report.com is a company that was created by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These are the three major nationwide credit agencies that are in compliance with federal guidelines set once the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) was passed in 2003.

The main objective of Annual Credit Report.com is to provide consumers with the one free credit report they are entitled to once every 12 months. Information presented in this complementary document would be provided by one of the three major credit bureaus mentioned above.

Services Offered

People who request documents from Annual Credit Report.com are presented them in a very speedy manner. They can obtain them very quickly-in much less time than they would if they have requested them by telephone or mail.

In addition to request of a instant free credit report, this free service started by Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion offers much more. You receive information pertaining to all questions people have about receiving credit reports.

Additional assistance provided by Annual Credit Report.com includes this:

• Simple provision of information for people who want to learn how they can place an identify theft fraud alert on their file
• Referral to rules and regulations for consumers set by the Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Answers to questions about security when seeking a free credit report
• Information on how to only receive an online report but how to receive one by mail or phone
• References to information as well as basic answers about prevention of further identity theft action
• Information about access to credit reports for vision impaired individuals
• Provision of fraud alert contact information of all three major credit bureaus

It may interest some people to get a profile of the three major credit bureaus in the United States. This is mainly to get to know the agencies in charge of keeping your credit report on file.

This is a very brief history of TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. It gives you an idea of where they are located and such and how they got started.

Some History

TransUnion was first created in 1968. It was founded by the Union Tank Car Company. Its role as a credit agency took place after the purchase of the Cook County Credit Bureau in 1969.

Today the TransUnion Credit Union is based out of Chicago, Illinois. It operates 250 offices in all.

Experian is actually known as a “credit informational group” according to Wikipedia. It was started in 1980 by John Peace in Nottingham. It has over the years (since 1996) acquired agencies formerly known as TRW Information Services, Bain Capital, and Thomas H. Lee Partners in 1996.

Then, in 1998 Experian acquired CheetahMail. This was a business founded in 1998. Experian is the one that offers the Triple Advantage (SM) Credit Monitoring services. They still require a credit card number for a free credit report but are now complying with the FTC as far as providing free credit reports.

There was an issue back in 2005 during which time it was found out that Experian violated FTC rules. Apparently they were not within-and are still not within Federal Trade Commission rules-because of the fact that they require a credit card number from consumers to receive it.

Equifax is actually the oldest of the three agencies. It was founded in 1899 and is today responsible for over 400 million credit accounts worldwide.

Equifax (formerly Retail Credit Company) especially started to grow in the 1920s and the planting of offices spread throughout the United States and Canada. By the 1960s it has held files for millions of Americans and Canadians.

Of course, just like other credit agencies this one has had its share of dirt dug up about it. There has been a fair share of rumors and inaccuracies pertaining to consumers that were said to be retrieved by Equifax over the years. This has to do with fact that this credit bureau was sued for getting too much into people’s private lives in order to make their situation worse.

All in all though, we still have to deal with Equifax as well as the other two bureaus (TransUnion and Experian). They can either be our friend or our enemy. Most of the time though they are there to help consumers and any problems with these credit bureaus should be reported to the Federal Trade Commission immediately.