On December 4, 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) act that provides one free credit report to all citizens of the United States per year. This came about as the result of a rise in identity theft and the need for citizens to able to view and monitor their credit reports to check for accuracy of information.
Now, all United States citizens are entitled to one free credit report each year from any one of the three credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. This one free credit report can be very valuable to the everyday consumer as it is used by most lending institutions and credit card companies to evaluate you and decided if you are a good credit risk.
There are various ways you can go about getting your free credit report. You can go to any of the credit reporting agencies’ websites: www.experian.com, www.equifax.com, or www.transunion.com. There will be links there that can guide you through getting your free credit report.
Probably one of the easier ways, however, to go about it is to visit either of the following websites: www.annualcreditreport.com or www.freecreditreport.com. They will guide you through the process by asking a series of questions and asking personal things to help determine that you are who you say you are. Within a few moments, your free credit report will appear on your computer screen and you will be able to save it to your computer and print it out so you can check for any mistakes.
Many people feel that the FACT act is one of the best pieces of legislation to come into effect in a long time. Many years ago, the everyday consumer would have to pay money to see their credit report. The information was almost held hostage unless that person wanted to “pay up”. The FACT Act was written and passed to prevent this.
Legislators agreed that people should have access to information about them and that they deserved to be able to see what the credit reporting agencies have compiled about them. So now, each and every American can get a free credit report each year.
We urge you to get your free credit report right now if you haven’t already. It is how lending companies decide if you can get a car loan, a home loan, or a line of credit. For many Americans, this is very important. So, go get your free credit report and stay on the road toward having a clean credit record.
