Credit Loan > Free Credit Report? Only One Approved Website

Free Credit Report

Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) there in only one clearinghouse for obtaining the free annual credit report to which you are entitled. The only website that is approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for this purpose is:

www.annualcreditreport.com

There are many similar sounding websites which may have only slightly different spelling. In many cases, these are either complete scams or they will try to sell you services that seem to be related, but really have nothing to do with what you are entitled to under the FCRA. Because of this, it is important to be sure that when you type in the name of the website, it is spelled precisely as: www.annualcreditreport.com

Alternately, to be sure you are getting the right website, you can link to it from the FTC website: www.ftc.gov/freereports , which gives consumers information about what the law is and how to avoid being scammed. The FTC will also tell you that you may be offered other services on annualcreditreport.com, but that these are not part of the FCRA. What you are entitled to is absolutely free of charge. This also goes for visiting the websites of the three credit reporting agencies. While they are required by law to provide you with this free report, they will also try to sell you other services, such as monthly credit monitoring, which is not something that is covered under the FCRA.

You can also call 877-322-8228 to get your free report, or write to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

But again, beware of scams. Some similar sounding websites will have you call a different number, or write to a similar sounding address, so make sure to check the phone number and the address on www.ftc.gov/freereports or annualcreditreport.com to ensure that it is the correct information.

It is not always easy to remember exactly how to type in the name of a website, so when you find it and are certain that you are in the right place, you should bookmark it in your browser. You also have to be careful using a search engine like Google to find the correct site. Some similar search terms can bring up several of the scam sites. The FTC gives the following examples:

"free credit report"
"free credit score"
"free credit check"
"one free credit report"
"free credit report online"
"free credit monitoring"
"free credit rating"
"free credit history"

Clicking any one of these, however, will not necessarily get you to the correct website. Be very careful, and only order the free report that you are entitled to under the FCRA at: www.annualcreditreport.com