Checking your credit, free online reports?
 

I've never checked my credit online before, so I'm wondering what companies to use or not to use to do it?
I know there are free credit reports, but I want to make sure I don't use the wrong one?
Any names, help, advice would be greatly appreciated!

this one::)
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

there are a lot of sneaky companies out there for sure!!! a lot of the "free credit report" and monitoring sites are only free when you read the fine print and realize they charge you a monthly fee (in essence, you are becoming a member of program).

if you are only interested in your credit report and not your scores, i think the safest way to get them are through each of the 3 major credit reporting bureaus. you are allowed one free report per bureau per year. i would go to each website and find out how to get your free report.

now if you are interested in credit monitoring and/or obtaining your credit scores, i use myfico.com. i get the suze orman kit (only when there is a discount code floating around) which gives you access to 3 credit scores and reports per kit. there are also other aspect of the suze orman kit which are great too. for example, my last apartment WRONGFULLY sent me to collections for a bogus outstanding bill. in the suze orman kit, there are canned letters for each of the credit bureaus where you fill in the information and it populates the letters. when i did this my credit was fixed in about 45 days (this situation dropped my credit 130 points!!!) and my credit was back to where it was supposed to be. the kit made it really easy to do

i am looking forward to reading other posts because i am passionate about keeping my credit good. the suze orman kit even gives you tips on how you can make your score higher. last i checked mine was about 802. hope that helps :)

I use this one also. Nothing to sign up for, totally free

Agree....the other sites out there offer reports for a fee. You can access all three major credit reporting agencies at one time and reports are provided free once a year.

Thank You! I was just reading about this on my American Express account!

Wow, that is some good information. So the free report won't let you know your credit score?
I will have to check out the Suze Orman kit, I really appreciate the info!

no, just getting your credit reports will NOT tell you your credit scores (that is the catch in a lot of those "free credit report/scores" commercials). i just love the suze orman kit and it has already paid for itself :) and i am glad you thought my loooooooooooong post was good info :D i tend to get chatty about these sorts of things. i just know there are so many scams and things like that out there that i really want to let people know when i have really had success with something :thumbup:

No, I really appreciate it! The free credit report that you can get annually. Do you usually get all three at once to compare or at different times?
The last thing I need right now is to get scammed on top of my job being eliminated! :mad:

Think it's $7.95 to actually get your credit score

Oh ok, that's not too bad! Thank You!

Yes it's $7.95 for EACH credit score. Each credit reporting agency gives a score

Yep, agree w/ others - this is the real one; I think it's mandated/supported by govt. - I was just reading about this over the weekend.

I also read about how you can do what Lifelock does, for free. Lifelock charges you, for the same stuff that you are able to just do free of charge.

You can do your own Lifelock by putting a 90-day Fraud Alert on your credit, so no one can access it (this is exactly what Lifelock does). If you place the FA through Equifax - they will also notify Transunion and Experian. Then, all you do is renew it before the 90 days are up, so you're always covered. A more permanent option is to place a Credit Freeze on your account - and that also is a great option, for minimal fees.

Check this out:

Free FICO credit score from Equifax for the first 10,000 - SlickDeals.net Forums

I (last week) was wondering the same thing. I ended up going with privacy assist on Bank of America website by referral from a family member.

First month is FREE but 12.99 (i think) per mo after that and you can cancel at any time.

Whats great about this particular site is they give you all three credit scores PLUS have a credit analysis and you can use different scenarios to see what your credit score would be.....i.e. what if you paid off your credit cards or paid them down, etc. and gives you an estimate of how much your credit score will increase. I go look at it every day haha.

I've used others before, but this one is by far the best i've ever used. It takes the guess work out of analyzing your credit report.