Reader Questions: Is there a free on line credit report service that has no trial or any other hidden fees?

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June 24th, 2009 - Posted by Joe

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.

Q: Is there a free on line credit report service that has no trial or any other hidden fees?

A: Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, you are entitled to one free credit report per twelve month period from each of the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You can order your free credit reports online by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com, by calling 1-877-322-8228 or by submitting a request in writing to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

Here are some tips and general information on how to get the most out of the AnnualCreditReport.com free credit report program:

• It is a good idea to stagger your requests so you get one of your three annual reports every four months. This ensures that you get credit data throughout the year, which is important because your credit file is always changing. Keep in mind that your credit file can vary greatly from bureau to bureau, so you may still miss some important changes even if you stagger your requests.
• AnnualCreditReport.com only provides your credit report and not your credit score. We suggest that you sign up for a free trial of a credit report monitoring service if you want to receive free access to your credit scores.
• AnnualCreditReport.com will not alert you if changes post to your credit report. If you want up-to-date information about how lenders view your credit file, we suggest considering a credit report monitoring service.

You can read our full review of AnnualCreditReport.com to learn more. If you are interested on learning about services that will provide you with free credit reports and free credit scores, you can read our comparison on credit report monitoring services.