How to Request a Credit Report From Equifax

Your credit score can affect your employment, apartment search and all loans. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires all three credit agencies---TransUnion, Equifax and Experian---to offer free credit reports to American consumers. These free reports, however, can be retrieved from one online source: Annual Credit Report.

Instructions

1

Log on to Annual Credit Report (listed under Resources below). You will need your name, address, Social Security number, phone number, previous addresses (five-year history) and email address. You can elect to purchase a FICO score, too, if you'd like. A FICO score is a number between 300 and 850 that represents overall creditworthiness.

2

Choose Equifax from the list of credit bureaus after you create your account online. You can also get a free copy from TransUnion and Experian.

3

Review the security questions. These may be quite challenging. Most of the questions will be quite specific. The questions are designed for your protection. You may need to know your last payment amounts, balances, dates you opened accounts on, names of creditors and when accounts were paid off.

4

Review your answers to the security questions. Just one wrong answer could trigger the electronic locking mechanism on the website. If your account is locked, you will need to call Equifax to verify your identity. Click "submit" if you are satisfied with your answers.

5

Decide between online viewing or a PDF document. Both copies of the report will show all current and past accounts, public records (judgments), inquiries and demographic information. If you purchased a FICO score, it will be listed at the top of the report.