The 3 credit bureaus are companies in the business of making a profit, so when you go to get your free credit reports, you’ll receive multiple offers for paid services. It was difficult for me to find my free credit report on each page, and I’m a web designer.
However, I was able to get my three credit reports without taking out my credit card, and that brings us to the basic ideas behind this:
Basic Ideas
1) Most basic…do not get your credit card out. If you’re about to enter your credit card number, you’re doing something wrong.
2) The government requires each of the three credit bureaus to give you a free credit report once a year. These three reports are different, so our goal is to get three separate reports.
3) The government does not require the credit bureaus to give you a copy of your credit score. Remember that if you improve your credit report, then your score will go up, so you don’t really need the credit score. (If you want your credit score for free, I suggest you call a mortgage lender and get pre-qualified to buy a home. Even if you’re not thinking about finding a new home right now, if you answer a few questions, they’ll usually be happy to tell you how much you’ll qualify for and what your score is.)
4) One more problem…these companies don’t offer an option for you to download your reports. They just open on the internet with the option to print, and once you’ve looked at them online, that could count as your free credit report for the year. In other words, if you don’t print them off immediately, then you run the risk of losing them.
a) If you don’t mind printing them off, please skip to Instructions and ignore steps involving “PrimoPDF”.
b) If you want to save it on your computer, there is a free product that will let you turn your report into a PDF document that you can save. Go to http://download.cnet.com/windows/. In the search box, type in Primo PDF.
c) Scroll down the page until you see PrimoPDF
d) Download the program and install it. After you install the program, you’ll be able to save pdfs through your printing screen. I’ll show you how to do it below.
Instructions
1) Go to www.annualcreditreport.com. The page should look like this:
2) Click on your state and “Request Report”.
3) You’ll have to provide your information. The credit bureaus are highly regulated business, so I felt ok about putting my info in.
4) Next, they’ll ask you which companies you want a free report from. Be sure to put a check mark in all three boxes. It should look like this:
5) In order to get a credit report from each company, you’ll have to visit each companies website. These may be out of order for you, but here are instructions on each company’s site.
Equifax
1) This site will ask if you want to buy a credit score to go with your credit report. Click at the bottom right saying “No Thanks, I Don’t Want to Know My Score”
2) You’ll have to answer some questions for identification.
3) On the next page, answer “No” to both the questions, and click on “Submit”.
4) Click on View and Print My Report Online.
5) Click on print, use PrimoPDF to save report.
Then click on “Print” and “Create PDF”. You can name the document and save it on your computer.
Experian
1) Enter last 4 of social.
2) Don’t click back, stop, reload, or forward buttons.
3) Go to bottom right and click on “Annual Credit Report”.
4) They’ll ask questions for identification. The questions are a little trickier than equifax so read them carefully.
5) Click on the link “Print Your Report”.
6) Use PrimoPDF to save a copy.
Transunion
1) For Transunion, they make you create a username and password.
2) When they ask for your email, leave the email blank, and click on “No Thanks”.
3) They’ll ask you questions for identification.
4) On the next page, click “No Thanks, Just Show My Report”.
5) Click on print and use Primo PDF to save a copy.
Congratulations! You’ve got your three credit reports. I’m sorry if this was the most boring post ever, but I want clients to be able to get their free credit reports with minimal frustration.
Final Thought: These websites will definitely change over time so that the process won’t be exactly the same, but I believe the Basic Ideas at the top and the general ideas behind the instructions will remain the same. Hope it helps.