How to Get Your Free Credit Reports
Where to get your reports at no cost, how often, what a report includes that a score does not, and the sites to avoid.
You are entitled to free copies of your credit reports, and you do not need a subscription, a trial, or a card on file to get them.
They are the starting point for do-it-yourself credit repair.
The official source
AnnualCreditReport.com is the site established under federal law for this. It is the only one that provides your reports from all three nationwide bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — at no cost and with nothing to cancel.
The law guaranteed one free report from each bureau every twelve months. The bureaus have since made free weekly online reports available, and that expanded access has been extended repeatedly. If weekly access is still in place when you read this, you can check any of the three reports at any time.
Additional free reports you are entitled to
Beyond the standard allowance, you can get a free report when:
- You are denied credit, insurance, or employment based on your report — within 60 days of the decision
- You are unemployed and intend to apply for work within 60 days
- You receive public assistance
- You believe your file contains inaccurate information due to fraud
- You have placed a fraud alert
- You are a victim of identity theft
Report versus score
An important distinction. The free reports are reports, not scores. They contain the underlying data: accounts, balances, payment history, inquiries, personal information.
A score is a number calculated from that data by a model. Free reports do not include one, though many banks and card issuers now show a score in their app at no cost.
For disputing errors, the report is what you need. You cannot dispute a score; you dispute the data behind it.
The sites to be careful with
Search results for "free credit report" are full of lookalike sites. The common patterns:
- A "free" report that requires a credit card and enrolls you in a monthly monitoring subscription
- A trial that converts to a paid plan unless cancelled
- A site that gives you one bureau's score and calls it your credit report
None of these are the statutory free report. Type the address directly rather than following an ad.
What to do with them
Pull all three, not one. The bureaus hold different data, and an error frequently appears on one report and not the others.
Then read them in this order:
- Personal information — wrong names, addresses, or a Social Security number that is not yours
- Accounts you do not recognize
- Balances and statuses on accounts you do recognize
- Dates, especially the date of first delinquency on anything negative
- Hard inquiries you did not authorize
How often is worth checking
If you are actively working on your credit, monthly is enough to see changes without becoming an anxious habit. If you are not, twice a year plus before any major application — a mortgage, a car, a lease — covers it.