Credit reports

[whispercricket]

If you ever feel the urge to check your credit report (free in MA, so get to it! [g]), and you only feel like checking one of the three credit bureaus, go for Transunion. They're the only one of the three that will let you get a free report online - the others only give you a free one through the mail.

If anyone actually wants more information about checking credit reports (like phone numbers, etc.), let me know, because I've been all through it over the past day or so. It took a while and some extra money so that it wouldn't take *longer*, but at least I've figured out what I needed to change. Lest this seem unimportant, I've been worrying about this for two years, so it's really nice to be able to cross it off my To Do list. Yay, shrinking to do list!

Comments

[tpau]

if you get refused for anythign based on yourcredit you can use the other reporting agencies onlineas well... i liek experian personally

difference is immediate online

[whispercricket]

No, if you are refused credit (or once per year in MA, I think) you are entitled to free credit reports from all three, and they all offer them, but as far as I could tell, Experian and Equifax only send free ones by mail. If you want to look at the report immediately online, you have to pay an extra fee.

So if you don't mind waiting, you'll get your report, but if you want it done *now*, you may have to pay. :)

Re: difference is immediate online

[tpau]

that is weird, cause a few months ago i requested one form experian and it was free and online, i hav ea print out and everything

Experian

[whispercricket]

I went to their website again and they do have a link stating, "Get your free credit report here!", but when you click on the link, you're taken to a registration page for a 30-day trial of their Credit Manager system. After the free month, it's $69.95 a year (I hate schemes like that, because I'm afraid I'll forget to cancel it and that the customer service people at the company will argue with me about staying in the program). I went through their other link to get the credit report and it asked me for about $9 to see it online. I'm guessing either they changed something in the past couple of months or they just made it harder to find the free-online-with-no-strings credit report option. :)