where do i get a credit report?

August 22, 2008 1:52 PM

where do i get a credit report? wikipedia says annualcreditreport.com is the way to go, is this correct? do i have other options?

p.s. this is anonymous because i'm in my late 20s and embarassed about not knowing how to do this at my age—i've never had a credit card and i've never taken out loans so i've never had to do this before!

posted by anonymous to work & money (14 answers total)

Yeah, that's the actual official and free place to do it (you can avoid all the upselling of other things they'll try to sell to you). There are like dozens of fake free credit report sites, so I totally understand asking this, I have to triple-check this every year or so I hit up annualcreditreport.com to make sure I got the right place.
posted by mathowie at 1:58 PM on August 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

Yep, that's the official site. You get one credit report free from each of the three credit card agencies. I recommend that you don't get all three of them at the same time, but rotate them so that you get a new report every four months. I have a reminder on my calendar that pops up every four months.

Also, as mathowie said, be careful and don't purchase any of the stuff they upsell. The actual reports are free.
posted by tuxster at 2:02 PM on August 22, 2008

Don't be embarrassed--patrons at my library find themselves on the wrong sites all the time. It's right up there with the fake-FAFSA sites. If I were more conspiracy-minded, I'd say the credit-report sites were intentionally misleading.
posted by box at 2:06 PM on August 22, 2008

The one time I wanted to find out what my credit rating looked like, I went to my bank and asked them to retrieve my report for me.
posted by Class Goat at 2:13 PM on August 22, 2008

You will be able to get a report from each of the three major credit bureaus via annualcreditreport.com. If this is the first time you have checked your report, I'd recommend retrieving all three. They may not be identical and it is best to check them all; some items may only be reported by one of the credit bureaus.

It is important to note that these are just credit reports and will not include a credit score (FICO score). If you want to know that, you will have to pay ($10-15 for each of the three scores). I'd recommend going through myFico.com if you want to get your score. It is run by the company that actually computes the FICO scores.
posted by PhillC at 2:21 PM on August 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

There are three agencies that record credit information. You are entitled by law to receive one free credit report from each agency per year, through annualcreditreport.com. You can get them all at once like PhillC reccommends, or stagger them if you're extra-dilligent.
posted by muddgirl at 2:28 PM on August 22, 2008

By the way, if you've never had a credit card or taken out any loans, there might not be anything on your credit report. I had some frustrating phone calls with the credit bureaus until they managed to convince me that I didn't have anything to report yet.
posted by Jeanne at 3:47 PM on August 22, 2008

Just seconding the suggestion to check all three. Last year, I had a clean bill of health on two but a mysterious debt that showed up on one. It turns out it was a banking error that came about when my bank changed my credit card from Visa to Mastercard. So weird stuff does happen.
posted by El_Marto at 4:24 PM on August 22, 2008

When you use annualcreditreport.com and submit your personal data, you'll be taken to each credit bureau that you've selected to receive a credit report from. You will likely have to enter some parts of your data again with each bureau just to verify your identity.

As you proceed, the bureaus will offer credit services as they get ready to present you with your report. If you don't want to buy these services, make sure you read carefully; sometimes the "Next" or "Continue" button is an agreement to buy. If you are ever asked to enter credit card or banking data, don't do it. It's not needed to get your credit report, and you shouldn't have to enter it in order to proceed or continue on.

I got burned by Experian last year, when in the process of trying to retrieve my credit report, I somehow signed up for a "Credit Manager" service. The "free" part was the 30-day trial, which afterward would start charging me $10 a month if I didn't cancel. It was stupid of me to not think anything was suspicious when I was asked for my credit card. Luckily I found some online help and called an obscure phone number (it wasn't the normal number for customer service) to cancel this service without further incident.

I don't know if Experian has changed their practices, but beware. Be alert and careful and you shouldn't run into similar problems.
posted by CancerMan at 5:08 PM on August 22, 2008

While you may not have ever had a credit card or taken out a loan, other things can appear on your credit score. If you've ever had your utilities, phone, internet, cable, etc. cut off because you didn't pay your bills on time, that will likely show up. Even unpaid video rental or library late fees will occasionally show up there.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 7:30 PM on August 22, 2008

I seem to remember the last episode of Marketplace Money (available free online or thru iTunes) covering this topic.
posted by bda1972 at 8:38 PM on August 22, 2008

The credit REPORT is free (it is a list of all credit cards/accounts you've held, outstanding loans and your payment history of those things).

Your credit SCORE (FICO) is NOT free. It is usually around the $5-$10 range and the only thing worth paying for when you follow the links from annualcreditreport.com. This is the quick "credit worthiness" score that people look at to determine how lend-able you are.
posted by ijoyner at 8:03 PM on August 23, 2008

I am going to go one step further and suggest Suze Orman's Young Fabulous and Broke. Definitely helped me be a lot more clueful about the whole money/credit thing.
posted by radioamy at 8:48 PM on August 25, 2008

So, I just myself went there, and...

0 out of 3.

The first site said I already had an account, as did the third, the second one was just down.

I'm trying to figure out a reason *why* it's in their best interests not to make it easy for me to get it free... cynical of me, isn't it?
posted by baylink at 2:17 PM on September 27, 2008