The Only FREE Credit Report

If you wanted a copy of your credit report do you know where to go?

There is a commercial running constantly on TV.
It starts with a nice looking guy, smiling at the camera,
He says, "I'm thinking of a number..."
His number happens to be 720
You know the commercial - right?
It's for a website called FreeCreditReport.com

That sounds like an excellent place to get a copy of your credit report doesn't it?
It's not.
And surprise, it's also not free!
While it is owned by one of the three credit bureaus, Experian, it is really marketing designed to sign you up for their "Triple Advantage" service.

Let's Google "Free Credit Report"
- which of the 35 Million pages is the best?

I'll tell you.
The site you DO want to use is www.annualcreditreport.com

It's the only site,
Let me repeat that again for emphasis...
It's the ONLY SITE that allows for a truly free annual credit report.

Here's the FTC's page on credit reports,
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.shtm

That's the good part.
You have access to your credit. You can see what you have and how you have paid.
Errors? You can now address them and fix them.

The not so good part...
No matter who pulls your credit, you using any of the free services, or the lender next door,
A mortgage Broker cannot use that credit report. They have to pull their own credit report.
Why? It's all about Fraud.

You see, most fraud starts at the credit report.

The borrower should not have a problem with this. The few that do are the same who complain when they use a credit card at checkout and the checker asks to see their ID.

On a related issue - What's your FICO?
The correct answer would be, "Which one?"
I'm not talking about the three scores each from the three different credit reporting companies.
You may not know this but your FICO score at the car dealer is different from the one I get.
The difference is how the computer algorithm weighs the various aspects of your credit profile.
Listen to the car commercials on TV, listen for the words, "Auto FICO".
Now that I told you, you'll start noticing it!