Free Credit Report

A free credit report is a copy of a consumer's credit file supplied at no charge. In the United States the phrase describes two different things that are frequently conflated: a statutory file disclosure that a consumer is entitled to under federal law, and a no-cost report that a company offers as part of a product, membership, or trial. The first is defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a federal statute. The second is a commercial arrangement whose terms are set by the company offering it. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers the right to a free file disclosure from each nationwide credit reporting company — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — once during any twelve-month period. The three companies jointly maintain a single centralized request service at annualcreditreport.com, which the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau identify as the source authorized by federal law for those disclosures. The Act also entitles a consumer to a free file disclosure in specific circumstances, including when a company takes adverse action against the consumer based on information in a report, when the consumer places a fraud alert, when the consumer is a victim of identity theft, when the consumer is unemployed and intends to seek employment within a set period, and when the consumer receives public assistance. A file disclosure is not a credit score. A score is a number calculated from the contents of a file, and the disclosures required by the free-report provisions generally do not include one; scores are typically sold separately by the credit reporting companies or by lenders. Many commercial websites advertise a free report but condition access on enrolling in a subscription that continues at a recurring fee after a trial period, or on supplying payment information. Sites that imitate the centralized service have been the subject of consumer warnings and enforcement actions. A credit file typically contains identifying information such as name, current and prior addresses, and Social Security number; account histories reported by lenders and other furnishers; collection accounts; inquiries generated when a consumer applies for credit; and public record information such as bankruptcy filings. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers have the right to dispute information they believe is inaccurate or incomplete, and both the credit reporting company and the furnisher of the information have duties to investigate. Because each nationwide company maintains its own separate file, the contents can differ from one company to another, and a report obtained from one is not a copy of the others.

A consumer who is denied a loan receives an adverse action notice naming the credit reporting company that supplied the file used in the decision; because the notice was based on that file, the consumer may request a free copy of it from that company within sixty days.