Safest Way To Get A Free Credit Report?

[rideit]

So, I was browsing around, most ‘free’ ones are a subscription that you then have to cancel. I found one that looked legit, but when it was asking for all of my info (DOB, SSN, etc) I got spooked. How do I know what’s legit?
This one ‘looks’ the part, but I just don’t know.


https://www.annualcreditreport.com/r...estForm.action

[goldenboy]

Comes free with a lot of credit cards

[Ted Striker]

annualcreditreport dot com is legit. I use it every year.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/article...credit-reports

[rideit]

Hung, it gave me a free credit overview which was excellent, but it looks like I have to pay for a Fico score?

[Soups]

All my credit cards give me my FICO or credit score for free. My bank (wells fargo) also gives me my FICO score with my checking account. Login and check.

[Ted Striker]

I use my bank accounts / credit cards for free credit scores that may/may not be actual fico.

You could probably do a free trial with FICO to get a real score, but they're all going to be close enough to each other that I'm not sure it matters.

[Soups]

I use my bank accounts / credit cards for free credit scores.

You could probably do a free trial with FICO to get a real score.

Is there much discrepancy between them? I assume through FICO it would be up to date at that moment and through the other institutions there may be a lag. But if it hasnt changed over a few months, wouldn't it be the same? I've never thought to double check.

[Ted Striker]

I don't think there is unless you have an issue. I used to obsess over it because I was doing things like applying for cards/bank accounts for the free money, then canceling at some point in the future, and doing it all over again. (there used to be a site called the fat wallet forums that was the tgr of that kind of stuff) At some point my regular income got high enough that it seemed silly, so I stopped, and my score doesn't really bounce around anymore.

Anyway, my strategy was to pull a full report through annualcreditreport every three months (alternating between the three bureaus), and check my various scores monthly. As a general rule, the "hard pull" from opening a credit card only showed up with whichever one bureau that company used.

[beaterdit]

I get multiple different free credit reports and FICOs every month from my bank and credit card companies, and from Turbo Tax too. Tap into some of those. For better or worse, I bank with Wells Fargo. My BOA card gives me a report monthly too. They all vary a bit, like up to 30 points but that's pretty much the difference you'll see between the big three reporting agencies anyway. Most of them indicate when there have been inquiries and debt:income ratio within 90 days or so. Doesn't really matter much to me lately because of course anything over 800 is gravy but it's good to know.

[rideit]

Yeah, i *think* i am over 830, but i woyld love know for sure...

[liv2ski]

If your 760+ you get the best terms so don't sweat it.

[Cdubmpdx]

Credit karma is free and gives monitoring. Not exact score but they use the same formulas. It's within a few points.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[ötzi]

Capital One Bank offers Creditwise but it's free for anyone apparently: https://creditwise.capitalone.com/home

It's bundled with my bank account and I use it pretty often. Simple to use and seems accurate as far as I can tell. https://creditwise.capitalone.com/home

[Nobody Famous]

Several points worth updating in this thread.

annualcreditreport dot com is legit. I use it every year.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/article...credit-reports

annualcreditreport dot com allows weekly updates through April 2021. Per the headline:
During these times of COVID-19, accessing your credit is important. That's why Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are now offering free weekly online reports through April 2021.

Hung, it gave me a free credit overview which was excellent, but it looks like I have to pay for a Fico score?

Like someone above said many credit cards provide free FICO scores. Here is a very good list of what credit cards, banks and CUs provide free FICO scores, it also tells which credit bureau they use.

There are two additional "credit reports" that annualcreditreport dot com does not cover, both of which you can get annually at no cost:

- innovis.com is like a fourth credit bureau in addition to the main three from annualcreditreport. Sometimes this only comes in a paper hard copy format they mail to you. Link is: https://www.innovis.com/personal/creditReport.

- LexisNexis risk solutions. This is officially called a "Consumer Disclosure Report." I found out about it when I recently changed home owners insurance. The new policy listed it as 'we got info from here, click here for more info..." Link is: https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com.

I requested and got a paper copy (no online copies available, a sure sign they discourage you from looking) of the LexisNexis report and wow, it has easily 4 or 5 times as much detail as any credit bureau report I've ever seen, and I've been looking at my credit reports for many years. This report is supposedly meant to report on your past insurance claim history, but it goes way deeper than that. I saw email addresses that I didn't know about, old addresses long forgotten, work phone numbers from 25 years ago. It was a shock to see how much information these companies collect on you.

[old goat]

Several points worth updating in this thread.

annualcreditreport dot com allows weekly updates through April 2021. Per the headline:
During these times of COVID-19, accessing your credit is important. That's why Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are now offering free weekly online reports through April 2021.

Like someone above said many credit cards provide free FICO scores. Here is a very good list of what credit cards, banks and CUs provide free FICO scores, it also tells which credit bureau they use.

There are two additional "credit reports" that annualcreditreport dot com does not cover, both of which you can get annually at no cost:

- innovis.com is like a fourth credit bureau in addition to the main three from annualcreditreport. Sometimes this only comes in a paper hard copy format they mail to you. Link is: https://www.innovis.com/personal/creditReport.

- LexisNexis risk solutions. This is officially called a "Consumer Disclosure Report." I found out about it when I recently changed home owners insurance. The new policy listed it as 'we got info from here, click here for more info..." Link is: https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com.

I requested and got a paper copy (no online copies available, a sure sign they discourage you from looking) of the LexisNexis report and wow, it has easily 4 or 5 times as much detail as any credit bureau report I've ever seen, and I've been looking at my credit reports for many years. This report is supposedly meant to report on your past insurance claim history, but it goes way deeper than that. I saw email addresses that I didn't know about, old addresses long forgotten, work phone numbers from 25 years ago. It was a shock to see how much information these companies collect on you.

My credit reports are frozen but I still occasionally am asked to identify which address I have ever been associated with, what cities I have lived in and similar questions for identity verification, so I guess they must be getting the info from the Consumer Disclosure Reprot.

[stealurface831]

If anyone needs their credit score checked, just send me pics of the front and back of your credit and social security card.

[altasnob]

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide credit reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.

The FTC gives information on how to obtain your free credit report:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/article...credit-reports

As mentioned above, the FTC directs you to use this website:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action