3 Ways to Get a Free Credit Report Online

Your credit report is something that contains all your personal and financial information. It has details like your name, date of birth, current and past residential addresses, credit cards and all financial transactions,, like payments, late payments, debts, loans and bankruptcies et al. The report is used by financial institutions and lenders to determine your credit worthiness and to judge how likely you are to pay your debts. There are a few ways to acquire a free credit report online.

1. The first way is to acquire it through the three main official agencies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. As per the law, these companies are required to give the consumer a free credit report once in a year on request. The consumer can log on to the official website annualcreditreport.com and place an order to get a free credit report online. When you place your order, you are required to fill in some confidential information and free credit report is made available soon afterwards. Each accessed report is available at the site for 30 days.

As all the three bureaus are obliged to give you a free credit report once in a year, you can avail of their services at different times during the year to access your free credit report online. This is the easiest way to get your report.

2. There are many private companies, which offer to give you the report for free but a small membership fee is required to be paid. The benefit is that you can access your updated credit report every month, instead of once a year and mend your financial habits accordingly, before it’s too late. Also, many times credit reports may have discrepancies and errors that you can easily dispute if you monitor your credit reports every month. It is wise to read the fine print before availing yourself of the services of these companies.

3. Some websites offer a free credit report online for some time. The customer is required to signup to avail these services. The report is available for free only during the trial period, which lasts up to 30 days. He must remember to cancel his subscription before the end of the trial period so that the subscription is not charged to his card.

When you get your free credit report online, take a printout or save it as this report is available for viewing only for a period of 30 days. When you need the report after 30 days, you will have to apply again.

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