Thread: Free credit reports-New Law

In the May/June edition of AARP Magazine, there's an article referencing a new law that allows us to receive free annual credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com

I've been to the site and it seems legitimate.

Anyone had experience with this?

Well, well.

I just tried to access my FREE credit report and NONE of the companies were able to deliver it online.

(Makes me think they're not too happy about handing these out for free. )

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone is actually able to use this service.

The annual free credit reports that are available under FACTA are being "phased in" . Depending upon the area of the country you live in, you may not be eligible to receive it until Fall, 2005

When I went to the site it said they were available for my region of the country.

Indeed, when I clicked on my state, the system took me to a form that I filled out for all three companies.

Then, after jumping through those hoops, all three companies indicated they could not deliver results online.

Any ideas on the least expensive way to receive credit reports?

Thanks!

Originally posted by AdamsRib
... all three companies indicated they could not deliver results online.

Usually this happens when they can't verify your identiry on-line, or you don't have enough of a credit history

Any ideas on the least expensive way to receive credit reports?

Since you are eligible already, I'd call them or write a letter requesting your CR's

Thanks!

I may go ahead and purchase credit reports and then use the free service after I've made some progress.

Any ideas with regard to the least expensive place to purchase?

Thanks again.

It's always good to start out with a paper copy from each CRA
They charge $8.00 or $9.00 per report
(Sometimes states limit the amount they can charge and depending on where you live it could cost less)

Once you have the paper copies you can sign up with one of the services often mentioned here
(i.e.: Privacyguard, or Mycreditkeeper) for one-line pulls of your reports
They usually have free introductory offer periods for you to try out the service for a few months

Recently the fee for credit reports (generally speaking) has been changed from $9.00 to $9.50. Texas fees are $9.50 Equifax $10.28 Experian $9.50 Trans Union.

I recently contacted all 3 CRAs asking for my free report for the year. I included all my info as well as a copy of my DL and a copy of a bill verifying my home address. I got 5 of them back with no questions. Only one of my hubby's was returned asking for payment. I will resend that one.

I had no issues and did this when I first started my repair July of 2002.

Enjoy!

Yep! I got ours (mine and spouses) online a few days ago through that annual report link.

For each of us, two of three were immediately available online and one of each (but different ones) had to be ordered by telephone when they were unable to verify. I think sometimes it's just the system being tricky. Like in my case the verification was that I had to insert a former employer from 1988. I did repeatedly and *I* know where I worked - but obviously TU had a completely different idea where that might be.

We are reportedly (no pun intended!) going to receive our respective CRs within a few weeks by mail.

*Word to wise, if you are trying to get yours and someone else's (spouses) using the same pc/browser, etc. it is likely to hang you up. In my case I think one for my spouse tried to "cookie" my info from my own log-on to their site a bit earlier and it hung up on us and said "you have already received your free report."

FWIW, last year before the free reports were available I received all of ours for free by mail by calling the respective CRAs and entering the voicemail prompt for "if you believe you have been negatively affected by information on your report" or something similar in each case. They sent them without question, no fees.