Why is it that free credit reports online require a credit card? Where can I get my report for real for free?

Freecreditreport.com requires a freaking credit card? How is that free? and experian wants one too! I thought you were supposed to be able to get your credit report for free from all 3 agencys once a year! How do you do this? I tried calling Trans Union and they needed a credit card and wanted 19.95! How the heck am I supposed to find out what is still on my credit and if it is right?

Free credit reports do not require a credit card and are not available from freecreditreport.com. Credit reports from freecreditreport.com are not free.

To obtain free credit reports, go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com and be sure to order only the credit report (at that site, the reports are free but the scores are expensive). No credit card is needed.

In the US you should go directly to the credit reporting agencies.

http://www.experian.com/

http://www.equifax.com/

http://www.transunion.com/

By law, you may request one report per year from each of the agencies and they must provide it free of charge.

I'm suspicious of the other sites who offer the reports for free because you don't know who you're giving your confidential information to and what they're going to do with it. And even if they're on the up and up, why would they provide this service for free unless they had some ulterior motive like trying to sell you something?

Here's a really good article on repairing bad credit: http://www.ehow.com/how_5551631_raise-sc…

It also tells you how to get a free credit report. Go to the end of the article and look under "Resources". They have links to Experian, Trans Union, etc. You can get one free report from each agency, but go to each agency's site and order them separately.

annualcreditreport.com
reports are free = always have been
its these darn silly commericials that are making 30 billion a year ripping people off.

Now, if you want your score - they will charge about 8 bucks through the credit bureaus.
But consider not knowing it - I never have.
Major lenders like FHA do not look at scores - they view your reports in detail and make their own decisions.
Don't sweat the scores - sweat having perfect reports and perfect credit.
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creditkarma.com