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You may have seen the ads telling you where you can get copies of your consumer credit reports for free. Read the fine print and you will see that there is some sort of catch with these ads that will ultimately cost you money. You don’t need to pay for your reports no matter what someone else says. Let’s take a look at how you can really and truly get copies of your credit reports for free.

Thanks to an amendment made to the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 2003, Congress authorized the Federal Trade Commission to mandate that copies of your credit report be made available to you for free. Previously, in order to secure your report, you would have had to pay a fee. As of September 2005, residents of all fifty states are now eligible to obtain a free copy of their credit report from Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax once per year.

So, why were the reports made available at no charge to consumers? Well, even though all three companies operate independently from the government, combined they carry so much weight in determining your credit standing - and your very livelihood - that a decision was made that everyone should have access to their personal reports on demand. Furthermore, since a significant number of these reports have been determined to contain errors, consumer advocates insisted that you shouldn’t have to pay to correct someone else’s mistakes. Enter the Fair Credit Reporting Act as amended in 2003.

There are several ways you can order your free credit reports, but there is only one web site that will give you your reports for free: www.annualcreditreport.com. Again, only this one site acts on behalf of Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union to give you your reports to you for free.

You can also call the following toll free number to order your free credit reports:
1-877-322-8228

If you wish, you can place your request in writing after downloading and filling out a form found online at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/include/requestformfinal.pdf. If you choose this method, you will need to mail the form to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service

P.O. Box 105281

Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

For more information about the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Federal Trade Commission, please visit the following site: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm

When ordering your reports you can also request your FICO score. Unlike your free credit report, you will pay a small fee - typically between $5 and $7 - to get your score. If you elect to learn your score you can use a credit card to pay for your transaction. The three national credit reporting bureaus may also attempt to sell other services to you while you are checking off the information for your free credit report. These services include alerts, but you probably won’t need them. If you select some of the other offers, you will be charged for the service, so be careful what you pick.

Copyright 2006 - For additional information regarding Matt Keegan, The Article Writer, please visit his blog for wit, quips, and freelance writing tips.

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Unfortunately your free credit report does not contain your credit score. The Fact Act does entitle consumers to obtain one free copy of their credit report each year, getting the actual credit score is not free. The government allows the consumer credit reporting agencies to charge you a fee to give you your actual credit score number. The scores determined by Experian and Trans Union are not widely used by lenders. The score provided by Equifax however is used by most lenders to determine whether or not they should lend you money and how much interest to charge you. Equifax will sell you its FICO score. It is recommended that you request and pay for this score. Once requested, the consumer credit reporting agencies will provide to you the scores and information on as many as four key factors that are negatively affecting your credit score. This will help you to know and understand what you should do to improve your credit score.

A credit score is a three digit number based on information contained in your credit report as it compares to millions of other people. This system brings your entire credit history to account into one objective number. This number is more or less a statistical prediction of how likely you are to either default or pay your bills on time in the future.

This score will determine your interest rate and if you will get a loan at all. The higher the score, the better your chances are of getting your loan approved as well as giving you a better rate of interest. On a mortgage loan this score can mean savings of many thousands of dollars in interest over the term of the loan.

The FICO score ranges between 300 and 850 and is based on the following factors:

Payment History (35% of score) Amounts Owed (30% of score) Length of Credit History (15% of score) New Credit (10% of score) Types of Credit in Use (10% of score)

This article was written by Kriss Standke who is an accomplished Webmaster and publisher of Free Credit Report Spot, Your Free Credit Reports, as well as Credit Score Resource where he provides detailed and informative articles, tips, and advice on free credit reports, how to get yours, and what to do with the information once you receive it.

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