Get your free credit reports
Identify starts here. Before you dispute, pay, or write a single letter, you need the actual reports, all three of them, because the bureaus do not share files and an error often lives on one report only.
The only official source
AnnualCreditReport.com is the only website authorized by federal law to provide free credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The bureaus made free weekly online reports permanent in 2023, on top of the free report federal law provides every 12 months. Reports do not include a credit score, and checking your own reports never hurts your credit.
The sequence
- Go to AnnualCreditReport.com directly, by typing the address yourself. Lookalike sites exist, and some exist to sell subscriptions.
- Request all three reports. Save or print each one, because you will mark items on them.
- On each report, list every account you do not recognize, every late payment you believe is wrong, every collection, every charge-off, and every inquiry you never authorized.
- Sort the list into two piles: dispute it, or pay it on purpose. The triage wizard sorts an item in about a minute.
- Note the date of first delinquency on old negative items. That date controls the reporting clock in FCRA Section 605.
How long items can report
Under FCRA Section 605, most adverse items, including collections and charge-offs, may report for up to seven years, and bankruptcy cases for up to ten years. The seven-year period for collections and charge-offs runs from the delinquency that led to them, and it does not restart when a debt is sold or paid.
Common questions
- Do the three reports match?
- Often not. Companies choose which bureaus to report to, so check all three before deciding anything.
- Does pulling my report cost anything or affect my score?
- No. It is free, and pulling your own report is a soft inquiry, which does not affect scores.
- What if a report shows an address or name I do not know?
- Treat it as a warning sign. Read the identity theft guide before you do anything else.
Run the triage wizard for your exact steps · Browse the free letters