Getting a real, full credit report?

[Anonymous]

Within the past 12 months I have used all three of my free credit reports you get through annualcreditreport.com -- I think Experian is the next up again in February or March.  I really liked the Experian report I got through annualcreditreport.com for a couple of reasons:  1) under each of my baddies it would tell me when it was scheduled to drop off the report and 2) they gave me a reference number to view the report again and I'm pretty sure the report updated months later when I looked at it.

I currently subscribe to creditchecktotal.com through Experian, and it's pretty good (although it was much better when you could refresh all three reports and scores three times per month rather than once per month).  But even though the Experian report refreshes every day, it doesn't tell me when baddies are supposed to fall off. My last one for a Target card from 2008 was supposed to fall off in September.  It's already been dropped from EQ, and TU as well I think, but it still shows up on EX. 

So I went directly to experian.com yesterday to try to purchase the full report like I got through annualcreditreport.com.  They have a thing where you can try it for $1 for a week and then they bill you $29.95 or whatever per month, so I tried it.  Much to my disappointment, it was the exact same thing I get through creditchecktotal.com.  I called in to cancel my trial membership, and asked about purchasing a full Experian credit report like I got through annualcreditreport.com.  The lady cancelled my membership and said it is not possible, even if you pay for it, to get a full report through Experian's website. 

Can that really be true?  Do I really have to wait until the 12 months is up to get the same report?  There's nowhere I can pay to get the same information?  If so, that seems kind of crazy to me.  Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Within the past 12 months I have used all three of my free credit reports you get through annualcreditreport.com -- I think Experian is the next up again in February or March.  I really liked the Experian report I got through annualcreditreport.com for a couple of reasons:  1) under each of my baddies it would tell me when it was scheduled to drop off the report and 2) they gave me a reference number to view the report again and I'm pretty sure the report updated months later when I looked at it.

I currently subscribe to creditchecktotal.com through Experian, and it's pretty good (although it was much better when you could refresh all three reports and scores three times per month rather than once per month).  But even though the Experian report refreshes every day, it doesn't tell me when baddies are supposed to fall off. My last one for a Target card from 2008 was supposed to fall off in September.  It's already been dropped from EQ, and TU as well I think, but it still shows up on EX. 

So I went directly to experian.com yesterday to try to purchase the full report like I got through annualcreditreport.com.  They have a thing where you can try it for $1 for a week and then they bill you $29.95 or whatever per month, so I tried it.  Much to my disappointment, it was the exact same thing I get through creditchecktotal.com.  I called in to cancel my trial membership, and asked about purchasing a full Experian credit report like I got through annualcreditreport.com.  The lady cancelled my membership and said it is not possible, even if you pay for it, to get a full report through Experian's website. 

Can that really be true?  Do I really have to wait until the 12 months is up to get the same report?  There's nowhere I can pay to get the same information?  If so, that seems kind of crazy to me.  Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Here's a suggestion.  The next time that you get the ACR report, print it out (hard copy).  That way you will have a permanent record of this thing you like (being able to see exactly when derogs from 2+ years ago are supposed to fall off).  And you won't need to ever go to ACR again, since you get  daily access to your EX report through CCT.

In the meantime you can add 7 years to whenever the derog happened.

[RobertEG]

The reports available via annualcreditreport.com are different for a good reason.

That site was created by way of negotiations with the big-3 CRAs and the FTC as a means of effectively implementing the "new" (as of 1968) requirement that the CRAs must provide eah consumer with a free report once every 12 months.  It was approved by the FTC as effective compliance with the stautory mandate of an annual report.

Being a statutorily mandatedf disclosure of their credit report, it is imperiitive that the report be as complete as reasonably possible,and thus reports obtained thru that site are more comprehensive than run of the mill commercial reports.

Additionally, since annualcreditreport.com is limited only to a consuumer's pull of their own report, there are no restirictions on incluson of soft pulls.

No credit report is "complete" in the sense that that if provides all that is in the consumer's file at the CRA.  The raw info is in Metro 2 code, and includes much information not included in any credit reports, such as the inquiree's ststement of permissible purpose when obtaining a credit report, and supporting documentation accompanying consumer disputes.  There is always some omission.  The only issue is how much. 

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Can that really be true?  Do I really have to wait until the 12 months is up to get the same report?  There's nowhere I can pay to get the same information?  If so, that seems kind of crazy to me.  Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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The CRAs certainly make it a pain to find... but yes, you can order the same sort of report that the free annual one provides.

It does tend to be buried deep in their sites and/or (intentionally?) mixed in with the reports available to identity theft victims or those denied credit.  You want the option that is JUST the report, no score, no monitoring.

These are currently (as of Dec 2015) direct links to the start of the process for each CRA - select the state reduced or paid option as appropriate.

Equifax

Experian

TransUnion

Depending on the state you live in, additional annual reports may be free or reduced price ($3-$8).  If not, the reports are about $12 each.

DON'T lie about being denied credit to get free reports.

Yes, the option is there - but so is the option to be honest and just pay the fee.

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Getting a real, full credit report?

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Full and real are not determined by whether or not the report has the fall off dates for derogs.

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I went directly to experian.com yesterday to try to purchase the full report like I got through annualcreditreport.com.  They have a thing where you can try it for $1 for a week and then they bill you $29.95 or whatever per month, so I tried it.

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That's one of their monitoring services and not the report itself.  As stated above, you have to dig a bit to find just the report but it should be about $12.  I have no idea if it's formatted the same as the report obtained via the ACR site.

It took a lot of digging but this appears to be the link.  I'm not sure how you're supposed to find this on the Experian site as I couldn't find it.  I found this link in a prior discussion here on myFICO (don't overlook them as a resource) using a site restricted Google search.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Here's a suggestion.  The next time that you get the ACR report, print it out (hard copy). 

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Or save it as a PDF.

[Anonymous]

This is all very great info, thank you.  Yeah I want to pull it fresh -- I'll even be happy to pay the $12 -- because I want to see what Experian says for that Target account that was supposed to be gone by now. 

Thanks again guys!

[Anonymous]

This was exactly what I was looking for -- thanks again for the links.  Unfortunately, this version doesn't have the "Scheduled to stay on your report until March of 2016 blah blah blah".   That's fine, I'm just a little impatient to get my last baddie removed 

I also like how this version shows all your SPs.  No wonder I can't get a CLI from AmEx, the last time they pulled my report was August 28th.  My score has gone up almost 100 points since then.