The three largest nationwide credit reporting agencies–
Equifax, Experian and TransUnion–offer free credit reports once a week.
The credit reporting agencies, which are required by federal law to provide each person with a free annual report, began offering weekly access in 2020, in what they described as an effort to help consumers deal with pandemic-related financial hardships, USA Today said.
Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to request free copies of your credit reports. Other sites may charge you or be fraudulent sites set up to steal your personal information.
Why check your credit report?
Your report shows things like how many credit cards and loans you have, whether you pay your bills on time, and whether any debts have been turned over to collections. Creditors, insurers, some employers, and other businesses use it to decide if they want to do business with you — and the terms they’ll offer you.
Mistakes, like accounts or bankruptcies that aren’t yours, can hurt your credit, increase how much you’ll have to pay to borrow money, and even derail your chances of getting a loan, insurance, a rental home, or a job. Mistakes can result from errors by businesses that report credit information to credit reporting agencies. They also can be a sign of identity theft. The sooner you spot a mistake, the sooner you can dispute the error or — if it results from identity theft — report it.
