You probably know that, by law, each of the 3 major credit reporting agencies must give you a free copy of your credit report, once a year, if you request it. In order to get it, however, you have to request it from each of the 3 credit reporting agencies each year. Kind of a pain. 

I’m sure you have probably seen the advertisements for FreeCreditReport.com on TV. If you have never checked out this website, you might be surprised to learn that it’s actually NOT FREE. There’s a catch. You have to sign up for their Triple Advantage Service which is $14.95 a month. You do get a free 7 day free trial of their service, so you if you make sure you cancel that service before the free trial is up, it would be free. But in the process you have to give them your credit card information. 

But never fear, there is a better way. AnnualCreditReport.com is the website you need. It really is free. It’s basically a portal to the three credit reporting agencies. You fill in all of your identifying information on the AnnualCreditReport.com website. Then, one by one, it sends you to the correct place on each of the 3 credit reporting agencies websites where you finalize your request. Of course, each of these is going to try and sell you their service where they monitor your credit and alert you of possible problems. You can skip these and just get your free credit report. They may ask you some questions to verify you are who you say you are. After you get your credit report from each agency, look at the top of the screen for a link to return to AnnualCreditReport.com so you can go on to the next one. 

By the way, they don’t mail them to you by US Mail anymore. You print them right from the web.