That's Right, You Can Get A Copy Of Your Credit Report FREE Every Year From Each Of The Credit Bureaus.

It amazes me how companies are capitalizing on the amended FCRA which was enacted in 2003 via FACTA by proclaiming that they will give you a copy of your credit reports from the Big 3 Credit Bureaus for FREE!  You've probably seen the commercials recently of these companies saying they will give you a copy of your credit reports and credit score for FREE, but in reality, you can get your credit reports for free without any of these TV commercial companies.  Why? Because it is now federal law that the credit bureaus must provide you with a FREE credit report every single year.  What these TV commercials also don't tell you is that you have to sign up for a service which will cost you a monthly fee after they've given you your free credit reports.

So how is it that you can get your credit reports free yourself?  Well I'm glad you asked.

On December 1st of 2004, the three nationwide consumer reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, began processing requests by consumers for their free annual credit reports, which you can also do now at www.annualcreditreport.com The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requiring the credit Bureaus to provide consumers with free credit reports every 12 months.  Initially only the 13 Western States were allowed this priveledge but is now good in all States.

Because of all of the consumer groups who worked hard in lobbying for these amendments, we have seen more improvements to the FCRA over the passed decade than any other time in history.  FACTA in particular was enacted to enable better protection to consumers from an identity standpoint.  Because the face commerce has changed so much in the passed 20 years, something had to be done to help consumers in protecting their identities in this electronic age.  Because data is flowing at an alarming rate with the advent of not only the Internet, but with other electronic systems and software, new laws had to be created to protect us.

Thankfully some major victories in credit law have made this more of a reality than ever before.  Are we done?  Not even close but improvements are happening and will continue as we all make it an important part of our own personal lives in writing your senators and congressman, telling them how you feel about your current rights under the FCRA and where you want to see changes.  We all need to make it our responsibility and take action for continued improvements to be made. 

Now it's very important you keep in mind that www.annualcreditreport.com is the only website that you can receive these FREE credit reports every year that you are legally entitled to.  So if someone tries to tell you otherwise don't believe it.  This is the only one in which the FTC has endorsed as the official free credit report site.

The credit bureaus are allowed to offer you other services as you get your free credit reports, but they are not to hinder your ability to get your free reports, if they do then they are violating their agreements for the purposes of the www.annualcreditreport.com site and you are not required to purchase any other offers in order to receive your credit reports.  I've personally received all three of my reports from this site and it was pretty seemless.  One word of caution however, Equifax seems to be the only one that allows the consumer to come back to the site for about a month, without having to pay for the report.  TransUnion is the stingiest of the three and does not allow the consumer to come back to the report at all, once you close their portion of the site, that's it and you can't go back to your free report.  So make sure that you print out your reports as you go through each one, especially for TransUnion.

WARNING! - Under No Circumstances Fill out any of the credit bureaus dispute forms on this site!  As you know (If you have purchased Credit Repair Combat anyway) you know that these forms are designed to get you to state things about items you are disputing that will be used against you in any credit repair process, so DON'T EVER FILL OUT THEIR DISPUTE FORMS!

If you want the details of how they use this information against you then definately pick up your copy of Credit Repair Combat, if you haven't already.