Resources for people with Bad Credit & information on Credit Reports, Debt Consolidation, Auto Loans, Mortgages, & more.

Free Credit Report Resource Guide

How to get a FREE Credit Report

One of the first steps in repairing or improving your credit is to find out what your current credit report looks like.

Thanks to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) which came into law on December 1st of 2003, you are eligible for a free detailed Credit File Disclosure from all three credit reporting companies once per year. These reports will disclose all the information available in the files held by these companies on your credit profile.

A Central Source has been setup for you to request the free reports. You can contact the Central Source at: www.AnnualCreditReport.com or by calling 1-877-FACTACT. The Central Source makes the reports available to certain parts of the country during certain times of the year.

Credit File Disclosures are used by third parties like lenders to approve or deny you credit. These credit files also record everyone who has requested a copy of your report within a certain period of time. The Credit File Disclosure that you will receive will contain information that is not included in the consumer reports used by third parties.

The three major credit reporting companies are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You are entitled to have one report from each of these agencies every 12 months. You can have all three reports at the same time or space them out every 4 months. The benefit of having all the reports at once is for easy comparison. Or by receiving one report every 3 months you can monitor any changes that may happen during the year.

It is important to mention that your Credit File Disclosure report is NOT a report of your credit score. Credit scores are used by lenders to determine if you qualify for a loan or service. The lenders use these scores to estimate the amount of risk they maybe exposed to by providing you with their services. Basically the higher your score the less risk you represent to the lender. You can purchase a Credit Score Report by contacting one of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies.

Equifax - www.equifax.com
Experian - www.experian.com
TransUnion - www.transunion.com

It’s a good idea to purchase the Credit Score Report along with the free Credit File Disclosure report to get an overall picture of your credit profile.