If you try to get a free credit report, you'll find lots of help. Search the web for "free credit reports" and you'll get a ton of results. Even the domain names can tempt you -- such as freecreditreport.com, among others. Unfortunately, you're usually not getting the best deal.
The US Government makes free credit reports available to all consumers already, and you should start with the reports available under the government program (available at annualcreditreport.com). If you need credit monitoring or any services above and beyond a free credit report each year, then you might look towards these other sites. However, you don't even need to do that -- you'll get offers for those services anyway when you use annualcreditreport.com.
Further reading:
Noe of the tree sites will give you a free report even with the above mentioned site. They ask you for a credit card and then when you don’t have one you will never get a credit score. Not for free not ever.
I have tried for a week now and am unable to get a free credit report. Even while on line with a customers service rep. I was told that there is no such thing as a free report. If I pay $14.95 then I will get access to my “free” report. That is from True Credit.
Kerry,
Just to be safe – make sure to only used https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp?
True Credit is owned by one of the credit reporting agencies, so they certainly charge a fee.
annualcreditreport.com should be truly free (although it’s not always easy to wade through the offers – just look for ‘credit report’ and click ‘no thanks’ when they try to sell you credit scores and monitoring services).
Good luck and let us know if you still can’t get your reports. It’s important to know if people aren’t getting what they need.
This is crap. AnnualCreditReport.com wants your credit card information so they can charge you if you don’t cancel their monthly “service”, just like all the rest. It is a big scam to sell you stuff. If a person is denied credit, aren’t they entitled to free credit reports anyway? How do you get them without providing a credit card?
quay,
They try to get you to sign up for paid services. However, you can get your reports truly free if you dodge their efforts.
If they’re asking for a credit card number, you’re right that something is fishy.
Keep an eye out for any “optional” items (watch for checkboxes offering premium products, and always look for the “No thanks, just give me my credit report” button). I’m not sure exactly how they word things, but if you are vigilant about the optional services you should be able to get a report for free.
You can also order by mail if the online process isn’t working: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/order?mail.