What Is the Free Credit Report?

When consumers request to borrow money, lenders use credit scores to help determine whether to approve the borrower's request and how much interest to charge on the debt. Credit scores are based credit information such as the total amount of debt you carry, how often you have missed payments or made late payments and the length of your credit history. A free credit report is a detailed credit record that a consumer can order from a national credit reporting agency at no cost.

Free Credit Report Basics

Consumers may order free credit reports from any one of the three national credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You can order a free credit report from each of the three agencies once every 12 months. Consumers must order their free credit reports though the website annualcreditreport.com, which is the only authorized source for ordering the free credit reports.

Content of Free Credit Reports

Free credit reports contain the credit information that impacts your credit score. Credit reports will include credit information such as credit card debt, mortgages, auto loans, student loans, debt payment history, bankruptcy, court judgments and a list of companies that have requested a copy of your credit report.

Benefits

Ordering a free credit report allows you to examine the information used to determine your credit score and potentially fix errors that are impacting your credit score. If you notice an error in a credit report, notify the lender that reported the error as well as the credit reporting agency. They must investigate the error and remove it from your credit record if the information is incorrect . Ordering credit reports periodically can also help you detect suspicious credit activities such as credit accounts and debts taken out in your name in a case of identity theft.

Considerations

Companies other than Equifax, Experian and TransUnion may claim to offer free credit reports or scores. The FTC warns consumers to be wary of such advertisements and to ignore any emails, pop-up ads or phone calls that claim to be from annualcreditreport.com, Equifax, Experian or TransUnion as such correspondences are often scams. You can send suspicious emails to the FTC at "spam@uce.gov".