Get Your Credit Report for Free - Really! No Catch!

There are many websites that claim to offer you a "free" copy of your credit report. "Free" however, usually involved signing-up for some credit monitoring service at some ridiculous price.

While you can buy a copy of your credit report from any of the big three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, you can get a copy for free thanks to Uncle Sam!

In 2003, Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act which requires the big three credit reporting agencies to each provide you, upon request, one free copy of your credit report. No stings, no credit card needed, just an honest to goodness free copy!

In order to comply with the bill, the reporting agencies worked together to set up Annualcreditreport.com, a site from which you can get your reports. The site requires you to register, and then answer a few questions to verify your identity. Once you do that, you choose from which of the three (or all) you want to get your first report.

The site limits you to only one report per, per agency, so that's three reports per year. What I do is every four months go back to the site and get a report from just one agency. That way, I can get a report every four months (just from a different reporting agency) to check on my credit and ensure I'm not a victim of identity theft.

Three's another way to get a free copy of your report, too. By law, if you are denied credit you can obtain a free copy of your credit report from the reporting agency that supplied the report to the person/company making the credit decision. The company who denied you the credit is required to send you a letter telling you such and advising you which credit agency they used. However, this method will hurt your credit because anytime someone pulls your report to check your credit it counts as a hard pull against your credit file. When using Annualcreditreport.com, it's considered a soft pull, and it does not adversely affect your credit score.

Get online and your free copy and guard against identity theft. And thank your Uncle Sam for looking out for you!