Just Got My Annual Free Credit Report

Did you know that now you are supposedly entitled to three free credit reports a year instead of the previous one a year? I did not know this had changed, because last I heard, it was just one, and when I did a little reading in an unrelated article, it said you are now entitled to getting three a year from any of the big suppliers like Experian and Transunion, per year.

It’s a very basic report though of course. It only tells you certain things, and I’m sure the pay services tell you more useful information, but if you’re just looking for a very basic report to see if there are any issues you can fix with your credit before applying for a loan or going to rent a place out or something else where your credit is run, then the free one should do the trick for you since it will tell you of any flags on your report. Free credit score checks are a great resource for spot checking your credit and getting any issues resolved that you might now even know about.

I went to AnnualCreditReport.com to get mine, since this is the site that helps consumers go through the motions to get their free one, but it does mention that you get one free one a year, so now I’m unsure of the other information that I got about three free ones a year, that may not be right after all, unless they only advertise one but you are actually entitled to three.

I got my credit report through Experian, and found to my delight that there were no issues and all the open credit accounts, loans and lines of credit I have that are still open are in good standing and that there are no issues I need to fix. Now, what it doesn’t tell you is your FICO score or any numbers that are actually used by the companies that will extend you credit when you need it, that could definitely be useful information that you don’t get through the free version, and may have to pay for or find an additional service for.

Here’s what your free credit score shows you : All open accounts, who they’re with, what your monthly payments are to them, how much you have in an available balance with the credit line, and also how much you have left to pay off in your balance. Here’s how accurate that is, I literally had just made a car payment the day before and had a new balance, and it had already shown on my credit report as the newer balance, so they must send the information quite quickly over to the credit vendors.

It will also highlight to you any companies to whom you are on record as owing money to, and any potential red flags that can alert you to someone you still owe that you have been sent to collections for, which of course adversely affects your credit.