-->
Don’t forget your free credit reports this year!
It’s nearing the end of the year, and that means one thing: Ok, it means a lot of things, but it means one thing about your credit report:
Go to AnnualCreditReport.com to get your 3 free credit reports!
That’s right, every year you can get your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) for free thanks to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).
AnnualCreditReport.com is the only official site to get these reports for free. There are a number of posers and frauds out there who say they give you a free report, but it’s always bundled with some credit monitoring service or FICO score report. If you just want your credit report, then that’s what AnnualCreditReport.com provides (once per year for each bureau).
How to monitor your credit history all year long
Thanks to the 3 free reports each year, you can rig a system of monitoring your credit history all year long, but it requires some recordkeeping or a decent memory. Keep in mind that you can only get each bureau’s report ONCE in the year. If you try to access it again later, it won’t update with the new info; it will only have the info from the last time you checked:
- On April 30, get your credit report from only one of the bureaus (Experian, Equifax or Transunion) via AnnualCreditReport.com. Print it out for your records so you know which one you’ve already accessed.
- On August 31, get your credit report from another bureau (not the one you’ve already accessed). Print it out for your records and store it with the first one.
- On Dec 31, get your last credit report
- On April 30, get your new year’s credit report, and so on…
Be sure to go through each report thoroughly to ensure all the accounts are reported properly, and you agree with all the accounts listed (i.e. that someone hasn’t opened an account in your name). If you have a spouse and share many of the same loans and credit cards with him/her, you can stagger their reporting periods to give you even more coverage throughout the year.
If you haven’t gotten any this year, be sure to get all 3 before the end of the year!
Note: This is NOT a sponsored ad in any way. It’s merely a public service announcement from the Dude.
TweetLike this article? Subscribe to our emails & stay in the loop.
Other possibly related posts:
- Don’t forget your free credit report!
- Don’t forget: Commission-free eTrade stock trades today!
- Get your credit stories in by midnight tonight!
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Clever Dude and his bride started with $113,000 in consumer debt and in just 3 short years, it's gone!
hell yeah dawg, DEF a good thing to do! plus it’s fun to see if you were a good boy or naughty boy this year
Good idea to get your report to make sure no one is using your information too!
Just keep in mind that the free reports will not give you, your credit score.
I was under the impression that it operated under a rolling year… so is it actually a calendar year?
@Frank, it looks like it’s a rolling year, not calendar: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/helpfaq#oftenrequest, and I assume it’s maintained for each bureau. So if you get Equifax on Jan 1 and Transunion on April 1, then you can’t get Equifax again till the next Jan 1, and Transunion on the next April 1.
That’s right… it’s a rolling year.