How To Get Your Credit Report for Free

How Do You Get a Free Credit Report?

The fastest and easiest way to get your free credit report is by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com. This is the federally authorized website for credit reports.

You can also request your credit report by phone or mail. To request it by phone, call 877-322-8228. To request your report by mail, fill out and send this request form to Annual Credit Report Request Service, PO Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

Accessible Options for Getting Your Credit Report

If you’re blind, have low vision, or are print disabled, you can still access your free annual credit reports in a way that works for you. These reports are available in Braille, large print, or audio format. It usually takes about three weeks to receive them in one of these formats.

To request an accessible format, call 877-322-8228. You’ll need to provide some personal information to confirm your identity. You’ll also be asked to share a bit more to show that you qualify under the Americans with Disabilities Act. After that, you can choose the format that works best for you.

If you're deaf or hard of hearing, you can call 7-1-1 to use your local TDD/TTY service. Ask the Relay Operator to connect you to AnnualCreditReport.com’s TDD service at 1-800-821-7232.

What Are the 3 Major Credit Bureaus?

There are three credit reporting agencies for consumer credit in the United States:

• TransUnion

• Equifax 

• Experian

All three of these credit bureaus are required by law to give you a copy of your credit report for free.

You can pull a free report from each agency once a week from AnnualCreditReport.com. You won't get a report sent to you automatically, though. You have to request it.

Does Your Credit Report Show Your Credit Score?

No. Your credit report is like a transcript, whereas your credit score is like a report card.

Your credit report will show a detailed summary of your credit history. In fact, you have three different credit reports, as each credit bureau collects its own information. This is why it's good to look at all three reports and compare information across them.

On your credit report, you'll find:

• Personal information

• A list of your credit accounts, including credit limits and loan amounts (called tradelines)

• The status of each account (such as current or delinquent)

• Your history of credit applications and inquiries

• Notations of any public records that may affect creditworthiness, such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, or tax liens

Your credit score will be a number between 300 and 850. At least, that's the range for your FICO score, which is the most commonly used of the two types of credit scores. VantageScore is the second most common, and it has a slightly different scale.

How Do You Get Your Credit Score?

While your credit report won't show your credit score, many banks and financial institutions now offer free services that show your current credit score.

You can also enroll in paid services to check and track your credit score. For example, myFICO has both free and paid options for credit score tracking.

It's important to know which credit score you're looking at. The score you see for free from your bank or an app isn't likely to be the same score a potential lender will see. There are two different scoring systems — FICO and VantageScore — and within each system are several different scoring formulas that weigh different variables differently.

Still, free or paid services can give you a sense of what credit score category you're in and how your score is changing over time.