You can get your free credit reports online. Back when FACTA was first passed, all these different websites came about and offered free credit reports and you could get your scores too, but they all made you have a credit card and they'd suck you into a monthly charge for your credit score and/or credit monitoring service, offering it "free" for a trial period, knowing full well that many people would forget to cancel it in time and they could just rake in the money. The FTC and the bureaus did very little to market and make the public aware that they could get a completely free credit report by just going to www.annualcreditreport.com and request them without a credit card. However, they don't give you your credit score.
Well, they finally got a little spanking for being so deceptive. So now, they have to give you your free credit report and score for a couple different situations. If you applied for credit from a business and you were denied or if they gave you credit but on less favorable terms, the business (think lender or creditor) has to notify you plus, since July 2011, you get to have a credit report WITH your credit score since it was used against you when being denied or getting less than the best terms.
But, there are also two other places you can get your credit report with a credit score for free. The first one is by Equifax. It is called Quizzle.com. With Quizzle.com, you will get a free report and score all year long, but it only updates twice a year. Still, at least you can see where you're at and every six months, you can see if there have been any changes. The second one is from TransUnion. The website you go to for that one is called CreditKarma.com. You do not get a FICO score but you get their version which is called a VantageScore. Its similar to FICO, but does not have the same algorithms and could be higher or lower than your FICO score. They also give you a score for your auto insurance. (yep, some auto insurance companies pull your credit to factor that in as part of the basis for the cost of your premiums, or if you are even "worthy" of auto insurance from them). The additional good thing about Credit Karma is that you can check your credit score all year long from them and its always free!
So, here is some contact information to get your free credit reports:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
PO Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
By Phone: 877-322-8228
Online: www.annualcreditreport.com
Innovis
Attention: Consumer Assistance
PO Box 1689
Pittsburgh, PA 15230-1689
By Phone: 800- 457-0247
(Innovis is famous for changing their mailing address and phone number. Hopefully, these will still work for you).
Online: innovis.com (go to the tab at the top that says "Personal Services", then click on the link to "Obtain Copy of your Innovis Credit Report" for the easiest way without jumping through all their hoops. You will be able to download it to your computer from there).
Credit Karma (TransUnion with free score)
CreditKarma.com
Quizzle (Experian with free score)
quizzle.com
PS: Don't forget, there are other reporting companies like ChexSystems, Telecheck, and Certegy.
Chex Systems, Inc.
7805 Hudson Road, Ste. 100
Woodbury, MN 55125
By Phone: 800-428-9623
By Fax: 602-659-2197
Online: www.consumerdebit.com
Telecheck Services, Inc.
Attention: Consumer Resolutions-FA
PO Box 4514
Houston, TX 77210-4514
By Phone: 800-366-2425
Online: http://www.firstdata.com/telecheck/telecheck-request-file-report.htm
Certegy Check Systems, Inc.
PO Box 30296
Tampa, FL 33630-3296
By Phone: 866-543-6315
Online: www.AskCertegy.com
PSS: Don't forget, there are Residential and Tenant Screening reporting agencies too!
LexisNexis
By Phone: 877-448-5732
Online: https://personalreports.lexisnexis.com/resident_history_report.jsp
CoreLogic Safe Rent
Attention: Consumer Relations
PO Box 509124
San Diego, CA 92150
By Phone: 888-333-2413
Online: http://www.corelogic.com/industry/multifamily-housing-solutions.aspx
Tenant Data Services
PO Box 5404
Lincoln, NE 68505-0404
By Phone: 402-934-0088 or Toll Free 800-228-1837
Online: http://www.tenantdata.com/downloads/AuthorizationforFileDisclos_new.pdf
Information page: http://tenantdata.com/personalreport.php
I bet you thought this list would never end. Well, that's all I'm gonna give you for now. Ugh, it seems like everyone or every company can know more about us than we can remember about ourselves! If you want help getting rid of some of the information you'd rather not have on your reports and don't want to tackle it yourself, feel free to contact me at the email or phone number listed above on the right, or leave a comment below. I'll respond. I like to help people fight the system!
