Where can I get my credit report and how much will it cost?

Good news!  It’s free!  But don’t go anywhere that say “free credit report” and expect a free report with no strings attached.  The proper place to go is annualcreditreport.com.  This is the site that the credit reporting agencies were forced to set up by law so that you as a citizen can get your own credit report free of charge.

This is a great idea I believe as this information is crucial to you and determines how much you will pay for credit.  You have a right to see this information about yourself without paying a fee for it and you cannot suffer any change in your credit score for looking up our own credit.  This is important because when you attempt to get credit your score is lowered every time a creditor checks your score.  Those who passed this law wanted to make sure that this did not happen to people checking their own scores.

On annualcreditreport.com you will get to choose which credit reporting agency you want to go to.  The three agencies are Equifax, Experian, and Transunion.  You get one report from each agency each year.  You could therefore check your credit for free every four months from one of these agencies.  Checking the credit will show you if you have any mistakes on your credit.  You will not be able to see your credit score for free but you will see which creditors are listed and what the amount of the debts are to see if there are any mistakes.

This is especially important after a bankruptcy to see if these debts are being reported correctly as “discharged in bankruptcy”.  If you did not do a bankruptcy then you still would want to check the accuracy of the information listed there.  If you find any mistakes then you can challenge them with the credit reporting agencies.  Just go to their sites and the will have phone numbers, addresses, and e-mail for you to send the challenges.

Don’t be afraid to do this as this information is extremely important to you.  Most credit reports have inaccuracies on them so go ahead and check and correct them.

I am a bankruptcy attorney in San Diego, CA.  Please visit my websites at www.farquharlaw.com and www.freshstartsandiego.com. .  If you are considering bankruptcy then get my Free e-book; “13 Things You Should Do T o Prepare For Your Bankruptcy Filing” by e-mailing me at farquharesq@yahoo.com.