How to get a written credit report

Through December 31, 2023, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax will offer all U.S. consumers free weekly credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com to help you protect your financial health during the sudden and unprecedented hardship caused by COVID-19.

Your credit report, sometimes referred to as your credit file or credit history, is a detailed record of all your credit and debt accounts. It contains information about how much debt you have, how often you pay your credit and debt bills on time, and how long you have been managing your credit accounts. It also includes personally identifiable information, like your name, Social Security number and address.

Credit reports are maintained by the three credit reporting bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. You most likely have a report at each bureau, though not every lender reports data to each bureau.

You can view a sample Experian credit report here.

How Can I Get My Free Credit Report?

You can get your free credit report from many sources, including Experian. You are also entitled to one free copy of your credit report from each of the three bureaus every 12 months. Access them at AnnualCreditReport.com.

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How Often Is My Credit Report Updated?

Creditors typically forward information to the credit bureaus on a monthly basis. However, there is no set day that lenders update this data. So a credit bureau could receive an update from one lender on the first of every month and from another lender on the 15th of every month. Thus, your credit reports could vary on a day-to-day basis, depending on when your creditors send a batch of payment history and loan data to the bureaus.

What if I Find a Problem or Mistake on My Credit Report?

If you have no plans to apply for new credit, it's a good idea to review your credit report from each bureau on an annual basis. Check to ensure that your identifying information is correct, and that the credit accounts listed in your report are accurately represented.

If you do plan to apply for a new loan or credit card, it's vital that you check your credit reports beforehand in case there is anything that needs to be cleared up. Negative information in your credit reports can lower your credit scores, and you want your credit scores to be the best they can be before applying for new credit.

Under the Federal Credit Reporting Act, both the credit reporting bureau and the information provider (such as the lender who provided information about you to the bureau) are responsible for correcting any inaccurate or incomplete information in your reports. To get information corrected, you must initiate a dispute with the credit reporting agency. This typically involves submitting your dispute in writing. The credit reporting agency must investigate your dispute within 30 days of your submission.

Experian makes it easy to initiate a dispute online through our Dispute Center. You can also initiate a dispute at Experian by phone or mail; see "How to Dispute Credit Report Information" for more details.

How to Safeguard Your Identity

If you find accounts listed on your credit reports that you did not open or if you are worried about identity theft, you might consider filing a free fraud alert on your credit file that remains active for one year through the Experian fraud center. (File it with one credit bureau and you're good to go because the bureaus will share such alerts with each other.) The fraud alert notifies lenders pulling your credit report to take extra steps to verify your identity.

You can also freeze your credit reports, another free measure that prevents lenders from issuing new credit in your name altogether. Or try Experian CreditLock, a benefit of your Experian membership, which allows you to lock and unlock your report in real time, with no waiting period.

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• You're usually entitled to a free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus, but until the end of 2023, you can get them weekly.
• You should make all your credit report requests through AnnualCreditReport.com or call 1-877-322-8228.
• You can also get a free credit report if you suspect your identity has been stolen or if your credit application has been denied.

If you've ever had a credit card or taken out a loan, you have a credit report.

Your credit report is your financial report card. It lists what loans and credit cards you have or have had in the past, how much money you owe on each, and whether you have paid those bills on time or late.

All those factors and more make up your credit score, a three-digit number between 300 and 850 that indicates how risky of a borrower you are (in keeping with the academic theme, this would be your grade point average).

When you apply for a new loan, credit card, or request a credit limit increase, the lender will take a look at your credit report. It's important to check your report a few times a year to ensure the information is accurate. If something looks amiss, you could be a victim of identity theft.

How to get your free credit report

While your credit score is readily available from several sources including financial institutions, lenders, and third-party credit monitoring services, you will have to do a little more work for your credit report. You're typically limited to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Until the end of 2023, you're allowed those credit reports weekly as a result of the pandemic.

1. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com or call 1-877-322-8228

You can only request your credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com or by calling the verified phone number 1-877-322-8228. If another source claims to have your credit report in exchange for personal information, it's probably a fraud. When you go to the website, double-check to make sure you're on the right page. Scam websites will try to dress their pages up to make them look legitimate. 

Note: Requesting a credit report triggers a soft inquiry. These are credit checks that don't affect your credit score and don't show up when a lender pulls a hard inquiry on your credit.

2. Fill out the online submission form

If you're requesting through the website, you'll have to fill out one submission form, regardless of whether you want one, two, or all three of your allotted credit reports. The form will ask for your name; your current address; your last address if you've lived at your current address for less than two years; and your Social Security number. 

The next page has you select which credit bureaus you want reports from. The bureaus are given information about our credit-card histories from creditors, but they don't all have the same information, which can lead to slight variations in the credit history recorded by each.

It's best practice to review all three throughout the year; you can even set calendar reminders to request one every four months. However, if you're preparing to buy a house or make another big purchase that requires a credit check, you may want to request all three reports at once to review for accuracy, since you don't know which bureau the lender will pull from.

Before you can see your report, you'll have to answer three or four multiple-choice questions to verify your identity. The information in these questions is taken from your credit report. They're designed to be tricky (sometimes the correct answer is "none of the above"). You only have five minutes to answer the questions.

If you request a report from more than one credit bureau, you'll have to complete this step for each one.

3. Review your report

The site will produce your credit report within a few seconds. If you request your report over the phone, it will be sent by mail and could take up to 15 days to arrive.

The report is separated into five sections:

• Personal information: Your name, past and current addresses, year of birth, and phone numbers.
• Accounts: This is where you'll find the entire history of every line of credit you have or have had in the past — the current balance, date opened, the status of the account, highest balance, minimum payment, credit limit, etc.
• Public records: If you have been involved in legal matters, filed for bankruptcy, or experienced a tax lien, it will be listed here.
• Hard inquiries: If you have applied for a new credit card or loan in the last two years, the name of the lender will appear here with the date of the inquiry and the date it is set to expire.
• Soft inquiries: If an employer, landlord, insurance company, or credit-card lender has ever made a soft inquiry into your credit, it will appear here. Soft inquiries don't affect your credit score and thus aren't disputable. Soft inquiries also don't show up on the credit reports that lenders get when they pull a hard inquiry.

4. If something looks wrong, file a dispute

If any of the details, such as a date, balance, or payment looks incorrect — or if there's an entirely unrecognizable account — you can file a dispute directly from the online report, or by calling the credit bureau's helpline.

Again, all three credit bureaus will give you your report for free once a year, but all three bureaus offer paid identity-monitoring services, should you so choose. TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax's services include unlimited credit reports, email alerts when someone applies for credit in your name, and ID theft insurance.

5. Print or save a copy for your records

Since your credit report is only available to you a few times a year, you may want to either print a copy or save a PDF version for your records. If your session expires before you do this, you'll have to wait until the next time your credit report is available. 

Additional free credit reports

There are additional situations in which you can get a free credit report.

If you get an application rejected or experience another "adverse action" notice, you are entitled to a free credit report from the bureau that the lender used to review your credit. You need to request this credit report within 60 days of the initial rejection notice. Other adverse actions include denial of insurance or employment as a result of information on your credit report. 

You can also request a credit report if you suspect that you will or have been the victim of identity theft. If you place an initial fraud alert on your credit, you can receive a free credit report from each bureau in addition to the annual free reports you usually get. An initial fraud alert requires credit bureaus to take steps to confirm your identity when they get a request to open a new line of credit. These last a year, at which point you can place another alert on your credit.

Note: You only need to place an initial fraud alert with one bureau. That bureau will contact the other two.

On top of all these free reports, you can also sign up for a credit monitoring service. The services that go through credit bureaus will give you access to additional credit reports, such as myEquifax, which offers six free credit reports annually, or Experian Boost, which offers a free credit report every 30 days. Other services might not give you direct access to your credit reports but will alert you to any changes in your credit report.

There's an abundance of free credit report resources out there for you to take advantage of. If you're spending money to view your credit report, you're doing something wrong.