A Guide to Annual Credit Report.Com

My fellow writer, Linda Cole, wrote an article about freecreditreport.com's not so free service and offered her readers a link to annualcreditreport.com, a service that is completely free, where you can access your credit report from the nation's three credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. You can read Linda's article here about freecreditreport.com.

By law, each of the three credit reporting agencies have to give you once a year access to your credit report. You can only access the free credit reports by going through the Annual Credit Report website.

The first thing you have to do when you get to the site is chose your state. From there, you will input your information, including your social security number, on a secure page. At the bottom of the screen, you'll enter a captcha code. There is an alternative to entering this code for the visually impaired.

From there you'll be asked to select which of the three credit reporting agencies you wish to view your credit report on. For the sake of my own curiosity and for the sake of writing this, I chose all three.

Also, contrary to what many people believe, you do not get to see your credit score on these free reports. You only get to see the report itself. You have to pay in order to see what your own credit score is. For a good tip, if you do want to see your credit score and not just the report, Experian is the cheapest way to go. Read on for the prices of each agency.

Depending on the order in which the agencies appear on your screen, you will be redirected to that agency's site.

When I initially tried to get into the TransUnion site, I was faced with several questions about my previous employment, previous addresses, etc. The only problem? I couldn't remember the street number I used to live on. It's been almost three years since we moved into our house. Then I tried with the previous employer question. No matter which job I input, it wasn't recognized. Then I tried with account numbers. I was able to get one of those right but only because I had the documentation in front of me. The other account numbers were from accounts that had long since closed. I didn't know if I actually had the documentation on those or not. When it reached the point that I received a warning for too many invalid inputs, I backed out of the site and went back to the Annual Credit Report site and moved on to the next one.

I returned later with the correct documentation and proceeded to view and print my credit report but not after being asked twice if I would like to sign up for promotional emails (spam) and/or purchase a debt analysis for $5.95 or I could purchase my credit score and an analysis for $7.95. I refused to input my email address (it will not hinder the process) and clicked on "no thanks" both times. I was then able to view my credit report.

Tip: When you are finished viewing and printing your credit report on each site, you must click "Return to annualcreditreport.com" tab at the top of the screen in order to visit the next site on the list. However, if you linger too long on one of the sites, you'll automatically be signed out of the Annual Credit Report website and have to start again from scratch. Yes, it is annoying, but not a big deal, as it is only for your safety and the form is easy to fill out.

The Equifax and Experian sites were very similar. Unlike TransUnion, where you have to input the answers yourself, these two sites have multiple choice questions about your history in order to confirm your identity. This made the process a lot more simple. Instead of having to dig to find information long since passed, I was able to recognize the answers to these questions with the multiple choice. Equifax charges $7.95 to view your credit score and Experian, the cheapest of the three, charges $5.95 which I paid in order to get my score.

Each report had slightly different information. While my accounts were basically the same, the sites offered some other information as well. Equifax listed a nice bar and pie graph of debt to credit ratio. It also lists how long you've had credit and what your very first credit account was. Experian was much more detailed in the account history category. Instead of a little graph of months that shows whether or not you've paid on time, Experian offers the balance history on all your accounts, listed in actual dollar amounts. Makes for longer printing time but it is nice to have to see the total progress on your decreasing debt.

Experian was the only report that had out of date info as far as my employers and my spouse were concerned. My report showed that I had a job that I hadn't had in about four years and that my spouse was someone I had divorced six years ago. This little bit of misinformation was easily disputed and quickly resolved.

I hope this helps you in your endeavor to get a free credit report. It is important to check your reports at least once a year, which is how long you have to wait before you can go back to the Annual Credit Report website to view them again. Even if you don't apply for credit that often or haven't made transactions in awhile, it's still a good idea to go over your reports to make sure your identity is safe and to make sure all information is accurate.