Tip of the Week - February 10, 2016 - Get Your Free Credit Reports, Available Once Every 12 Months

Did you know the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months? 

"It's important for all of us to know what's on our credit reports. You won't get your credit score, but you can verify the information on the report and see what creditors, insurers, employers and other see when they run credit checks on you," said CSLEA Foundation Chairman Kenny Ehrman.  "Looking over your credit report helps guard against identity theft as you will be able to tell what's yours and if something is on that report, that isn't yours."

You can obtain your report by visiting annualcreditreport.com.  The three nationwide credit reporting companies only provide free annual credit reports through this website.  Be sure it is annualcreditreport.com and not an impostor site claiming to offer free credit scores or free credit monitoring. 

You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies at the same time, or you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time.  The law allows you to order one free copy of your report from each of the nationwidecredit reporting companies every 12 months.  Do not contact the companies individually, they only use the one website.