Free Annual Credit Report
UPDATE REGARDING YOUR FREE CREDIT REPORT:
During these times of COVID-19, accessing your credit is important. That’s why Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are now offering free weekly online reports through April 2021.
Step 1 of How to Buy a House is to check your credit. But, even if you’re not buying a house, it’s a good idea to get your free annual credit report once a year.
Check Your Credit with a Free Credit Report
Before you reach out and talk to a Mortgage Broker (or any other Mortgage Companies) regarding possible mortgage rates, the first step is to make sure your report is accurate. Errors can not only slow down the process but it can cost you thousands of dollars from having a lower score. Federal law allows you to receive one free credit report from each of the three primary bureaus every 12 months. Those reports may be obtained through the official site: AnnualCreditReport.com.
For your free credit report, you’ll need to provide your:
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- Name
- Address
- Social Security Number
- Date of Birth
If you’re planning on buying a house in the near future, you’ll want to request your report from all three credit bureaus, to review for accuracy. If you find any errors on your free report, be sure to correct them before you shop home mortgage lenders; and most definitely, before you apply for a home loan.
Errors on your Free Credit Report
What errors are you looking for on your annual credit report? It’s not so important if specific balances match your current balance, because the balance on your free credit report is the balance your loan was at the time it was reported to your credit. So what information on your annual credit report should you be reviewing for accuracy?:
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- Name (Your name should be spelled correctly, there will probably be variations including your middle name, initial, etc.)
- Social Security Number (Are the numbers correct?)
- Address (Does your free credit report reflect your current address? Previous addresses may be listed as well.)
- Loans (Are all your credit cards and loans listed?)
- Wrong information (Does your annual credit report have information you don’t recognize?
After you’ve closed, you’ll still want to check your free credit report once a year to ensure accuracy. If you’re only monitoring your credit report for accuracy, you may want to spread them out by checking one different one every three months or you could pull all of them once a year when you review your financial house.
Learn more about your free credit report in this short, informative video about annual credit report .com.
