Free credit reports now permanently available each week
October 16, 2023
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – the three national credit reporting agencies – are permanently extending a program that lets you check your credit report at the agencies once a week for no cost.
Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to request free copies of your credit reports, the Federal Trade Commission advises. Other sites may charge you or be fraudulent ones set up to steal your personal information.
By law, everyone is entitled to one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three credit reporting agencies.
In 2020, after the covid-19 pandemic disrupted the finances of millions of people, the three agencies announced they would temporarily make free reports available weekly. The program was extended twice and is now permanent.
Why should you check your credit report? It shows items such as how many credit cards and loans you have, whether you pay your bills on time, and whether any debts have been sent to collections. Creditors, insurers, some employers, and other businesses use it to decide if they want to do business with you – and the terms they’ll offer you.
Mistakes, such as accounts or bankruptcies that aren’t yours, can hurt your credit, increase how much you’ll have to pay to borrow money, and even lower your chances of getting a loan, insurance, a rental home, or a job, the FTC said.
Mistakes can result from errors by businesses that report credit information to credit reporting agencies. They also can be a sign of identity theft. The sooner you spot a mistake, the sooner you can dispute the error or – if it results from identity theft – report it at IdentityTheft.gov.
Get a copy of your credit report today and make sure it’s accurate.
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