How do I Get the Once a Year Credit Report Mailed to My Home?

By law, each of the credit reporting agencies must provide upon request one free copy of your credit report once per year. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ensures the privacy and accuracy of information contained within the consumer reporting agencies' files, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ensures the credit reporting agencies fully comply within FCRA rules and regulations. According to the FTC, all of the credit reporting agencies have a central website, mailing address and toll-free number through which to order a copy of your credit file. The site is annualcreditreport.com. You can elect to order all three reports or one report at a time. Do not contact the credit reporting agencies directly, as they provide annual free reports only through annualcreditreport.com.

Instructions

Requesting Your Free Credit Report

1

Be prepared to provide your full name; current and previous address if you lived at your current address less than two years; date of birth; and Social Security number. Have information such as the make and model of your car or your mortgage payment handy as well. Credit reporting agencies often ask for this and other information that only you would know in order to confirm your identity.

2

Call Annual Credit Report.com's Request Service number at 1-877-322-8228 and follow the voice prompted instructions to order a copy of your report online, by phone or in writing.

3

Go to annualcreditreport.com and fill out the online request form, print it out and mail it to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can also access the form at to the FTC's website at http://www.ftc.gov. You should receive your report within 15 days or a bit longer if the nationwide consumer reporting company needs more information to verify your identity. You may need to resubmit your request during periods when the credit reporting agencies are experiencing a high volume of requests. In either case the credit reporting agencies will notify you of the delay in handling your request.

4

Ignore any email, pop-up ads or phone calls from anyone claiming to represent annual report.com or any of the three credit reporting agencies. Annualcreditreport.com will not you send you email requesting asking for your personal information. Forward the emails to the FTC at spam@uce.gov. Be wary of other websites offering free credit scores or reports. According to the FTC, annualcreditreport.com is the only authorized website for credit report requests. Other sites entice you with the promise of a free credit report, only to hook you into a free trial period for a service, such as a credit monitoring services, for which you pay a monthly charge after the trial period ends.