Question regarding free annual credit report

[m3rge]

Hello everyone!

There is a free annual credit report per year for any individual.

I never did this proccess and I have the following questions:

1. What are the websites to get the free annual credit reports?

2. Is this a soft or hard pull?

Thank you everyone and by the way, this is the most helpful forum ever!

[llecs]

There's only one official site that offers your official report from each of the 3 CRAs for free and that's annualcreditreport.com. Aside from purchasing a report directly from each CRA or annualcreditreport, there are no other places to get your full report w/out the help of a lender. There are 3rd-party companies, including ones owned by the CRAs, but these reports aren't your full report and lack soft pull info, full contact info, only show the last 2 yrs vs. the full report's 7, etc. Any pulls from any of these sources, including 3rd parties (excluding lenders) are soft pulls.

[m3rge]

Thank you IIlecs!

[RobertEG]

+1

I would add as background....   the distinction is that annualcreditreport.com was officially created with approval of the FTC as the means for the Big3 to comply with their annual disclosure requirement under the FCRA.

Anticipating millions of annual requests, a simple way was needed, and the FTC agreed to use of that web site for compliance.  It is thus not a sham or "come-on" site.

Annualcreditreport.com is only used for consumer request of their own credit report.  There is thus a difference in content that may be included.  Under the FCRA, certain information in a consumer's file is barred from disclosure to others, such as so-called "soft" inquiries by a consumer for their own credit report and inquiries that were made not based on consumer-initiated requests for credit or insurance, such as so-called promotional inquiries and creditor periodic reviews.  They may thus include that info in reports they provide via annualcreditreport.com, but they cannot include it by statute in reports they sell to others.

Only the Big3 were part of that agreement, so getting your free report from other CRAs, such as Innovis, must be done by separate request to them.

That is not to say that annualcreditreport.com is totally non-commercial.  They slip in offers to purchase your credit score, but you can simply decline, get your free report, and leave.

[m3rge]

Good background history! thank you RobertEG!

[HiLine]

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@RobertEG wrote:

+1

I would add as background....   the distinction is that annualcreditreport.com was officially created with approval of the FTC as the means for the Big3 to comply with their annual disclosure requirement under the FCRA.

Anticipating millions of annual requests, a simple way was needed, and the FTC agreed to use of that web site for compliance.  It is thus not a sham or "come-on" site.

Annualcreditreport.com is only used for consumer request of their own credit report.  There is thus a difference in content that may be included.  Under the FCRA, certain information in a consumer's file is barred from disclosure to others, such as so-called "soft" inquiries by a consumer for their own credit report and inquiries that were made not based on consumer-initiated requests for credit or insurance, such as so-called promotional inquiries and creditor periodic reviews.  They may thus include that info in reports they provide via annualcreditreport.com, but they cannot include it by statute in reports they sell to others.

Only the Big3 were part of that agreement, so getting your free report from other CRAs, such as Innovis, must be done by separate request to them.

That is not to say that annualcreditreport.com is totally non-commercial.  They slip in offers to purchase your credit score, but you can simply decline, get your free report, and leave.

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Nice background story, RobertEG! I believe that if you request your credit report via the aforementioned website, that will not leave even a soft inquiry on your report, correct?

[RobertEG]

Yes it will still be in your file, but viewable only to you.

Any inquiry for a credit report requires the CRA to retain a permissible purpose before they can provide the credit report. 

Thus, record of all inquiries are retained in your file.

The definition of a so-called "soft" inquiry is that it is not included in credit reports viewable by others.

Annualcreditreport.com is restricted to use only by consumers pulling their own CRs, so can legitimately be shown in reports you get there.

No one else will see a record of such inquiries, including the FICO scoring algorithm.

[m3rge]

These post sequence has cleared all my doubts about this topic, thank you everyone!

[culture]

is one per calendar year ? or  one every 12 months ?

can u get one in october 2012 and one march 2013? or you have to wait till october 2013 ?

[llecs]

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@culture wrote:

is one per calendar year ? or  one every 12 months ?

can u get one in october 2012 and one march 2013? or you have to wait till october 2013 ?

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It's every 12 months (vs. calendar yr).