Most of us may have known that we are entitled to a free credit score government report as being provisioned by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). There's one thing however that some people may not be aware of and that is there are other ways to get your free credit score report. So your next question would be, 'what are those other methods of getting a free credit report?'
Actually, through the established laws of the United States government, US citizens and consumers have the right of getting free credit score report once a year from each of the major credit bureaus. However, a proper procedure has to be followed when obtaining your annual credit report without a charge. If you are interested to take advantage of it, you need to use the official Annual Credit Report Service. This means that you need to go through the only legitimate source which is again the official Annual Credit Report provider.
One of the main reasons why it is such a good habit to obtain a credit history report at least once in every twelve months is the grave risk of fraudulent transactions and identity theft. If you closely monitor and audit your own credit report, you also guard yourself from identity thieves. At least when you spot something is not right or if there are errors regarding the details, you can immediately contest it or file a dispute as soon as detected.
There are three ways of getting hold of your free yearly credit score report from the Annual Credit Report Service. First off, you may get in touch with them and ask for assistance. Second, you may visit the official website of the Annual Credit Report. Now you must be careful as well in going online because there are illegitimate sites too that may pose another form of security threat for you. The good thing about online credit reporting is that you can get it effortlessly and without delay. Once you submitted your valid information to the system, it will automatically generate your credit score results. And lastly, you may download a request form from the same website; supply all the required data, print it and then mail it to the Annual Credit Report Service.
Take note though that if you need it as soon as possible, you better opt for the web-based channels because mail-in requests will be processed within approximately 2 weeks. Now just in case you do not meet the requirements to qualify for a free-of-charge annual credit report, there are some conditions still that would enable you to acquire it in accordance to the current FCRA regulations.
One is when you have received an 'adverse action notice' or that is when you are denied of credit, insurance, and others due to the results presented on your credit history. However, for you to be able to take advantage of this, you have to process within about two months from the receipt of the said notice. Other circumstances that would give you the benefit of a free credit report include when you deem that there's some fraudulent transactions detected on your credit account's historical information.
In addition, if for some reasons you can't receive a credit report for free, you can employ the services of one of the major credit bureaus and pay a reasonable cost for it. If you still want to get a chance of getting a free one, you can try other online sites; although those options may just provide reports coming from two of three bureaus.