Annualcreditreport.com

[haha]

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

Is this a legitimate site? If I enter my personal data, it will give me a free credit report once each year.

But I don't want to give some phony group my SSN, etc.

Any comments?

 

[wabmester]

It's legit. I've used them for a couple years now. You should be able to take the link directly from one of the reporting agencies, like transunion.com, if you want some additional assurance.

 

[haha]

Thanks, Wab.

Ha

 

[wildcat]

I didn't think the guys with the huge portfolios needed credit reports.

 

[pfpelican]

I also use that site. It's also easy to refuse attempts to sell you your credit score. Since there are 3 credit reporting services and each gives you a free report annually, if you request one report from one service each 4 month period, you will end up getting 3 free reports each year, effectively checking your credit free 3 times per year.

 

[wabmester]

I didn't think the guys with the huge portfolios needed credit reports.

If you were planning to steal somebody's identity, would you target somebody with a few bucks and poor credit or somebody with megabucks and excellent credit?

 

[larry]

Sent in for one of my free annual reports last month and got back the following, "Dear Consumer: We have received your request concerning your annual free credit report from Equifax and are looking forward to assisting you. However, the information you provided as proof of your identity does not match your information currently on file. Therefore, to protect your credit information, we must ask for some additional information in order to verify your identification and address." ...They have my current address as Autumn LN 1111, the Autumn LN part is correct but they added four - ones after it and now my normal address doesn't match up with theirs. Now they want a copy of SS card, pay stub or W-2 along with drivers license, rental agreement pay stub or utility bill. PITA

Edited to add that they have processed my requests properly in the past two years with no trouble.

 

[pfpelican]

When you do this online, instead of my mail, you have to answer questions about your historical use of credit to prove it's you (like ... you took out a mortgage in 2004, true or false...and it was for this much........or it was from this bank-pick the right one. Even if you have no mortgage. They can get quite tricky.) So, it pays to have records handy. Once they wanted a number from a very old credit card....which I no longer had. Another time I had to speak with a human cause I flunked the online test. I eventually passed the human-phone test. She congratulated me ;-)

 

[BigMoneyJim]

There's one such legitimate site and a bunch of copycat sites that want to get your credit info themselves. Whenever I use it I do some searches to try to make sure I have the right one.

Last I looked, you can't find the legitimate site linked from the agencies even though they set the legit site up.

 

[SC]

I have also used that site since it was first created.

This week, TransUnion denied my request for a credit report. No reason was given, their web site just told me to make the request by phone or by mail. I used the phone number listed on annualcreditreport.com (1-877-322-8228). It was a lot easier than the web site, with fewer hoops to jump through. I'll probably do it by phone from now on.

 

[wabmester]

There's one such legitimate site and a bunch of copycat sites that want to get your credit info themselves. Whenever I use it I do some searches to try to make sure I have the right one.

Last I looked, you can't find the legitimate site linked from the agencies even though they set the legit site up.

Here's the referal link I mentioned from transunion.com:

link

 

[BigMoneyJim]

Wow, all three sites have fairly plain links to the free site and pretty clearly differentiate between that and their plans. I'm impressed.

It's been a year or two since I looked, and at the time I tried real hard and couldn't find it. Now TransUnion has a bolded link to the page wab mentions, Experian has the actual link on the front page and Equifax dedicates some front page space, too.

Of course in each case a huge block is dedicated to their own get-your-own-report service, but I can't really dock them for that.

Guess I should've looked before posting. Nah, why start now?

 

[Bikerdude]

Wow, all three sites have fairly plain links to the free site and pretty clearly differentiate between that and their plans. I'm impressed.

They didn't do this out of the kindness in their hearts, they were mandated by Congress to provide free credit reports once per year for everyone phased in over a 1 yr. period. The 3 major credit companies created the free site. I think its great.

 

[happy2bretired]

I was able to get my credit rating from two of the three sites last year in March. I was going to wait on the third site so that I could have another credit rating later in the year. I also was not able to access the information since I could not provide them with the info that they wanted to prove that I was ME.
It was really tricky. One question had to do with previous addresses. They had two of my previous addresses listed and I must have selected the one that they didn't want. I locked myself out.

 

[bssc]

I had the same problem. There is a PDF that you can fill out and send in manually. Very last millenium but it worked.

 

[happy2bretired]

Thanks, maybe I will try that.