Is a Credit Card Required to Get a Free Credit Report: Part 1 

You may be aware that you have the right to receive a free annual credit report under the FACT Act amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. However, it can be a little confusing and there are some things you ought to know.

First off, while there are hundreds (maybe a lot more) online sites supposedly offering 'free' credit reports, there are just three major credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian (which used to be TRW) and TransUnion which are required to provide these reports.

However, when you go to one of these sites www.experian.com, www.equifax.com, www.transunion.com), you'll find the free report they offer directly directly from their busness sites requires you to join a monthly service using a credit card.

You do get the first 30 days free, so you can get a free report, but to keep it free you are going to have to remember to cancel before the thirty days are up or you will be charged.

You will also find information on each site about obtaining an actual free report. Basically identical on all the sites, it says: Under Federal law, you have the right to receive a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies. To request your free annual report under that law, go to  www.annualcreditreport.com.

Now that seemed like a great idea. So I went to look at the site and see how complicated the process was so I could include the information in this report. When I got there, I got an error page instead:

"The page cannot be found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable."

This was not a regular server/browser error page. It's URL is: www.annualcreditreport.com/notfound.htm

What that means is that somebody created that page and set up a redirect to it.

Next, I went over to Google to see what they had stored. Turned out their last copy was cached on 4/28/2006. I couldn't find any reason why the page was gone, but for now, we have no access to this site despite it being essentially required Federal law.  OK, I'm no lawyer and I don't know just regulations, rules or agreements cover this site, but the Federal Trade Commission pages have links to it and say it's th eplace to go - except it isn't there (as I write). Since they (that's the conspiracy unknown 'they') created notfound.htm, I wonder why they didn't also give some indication of why the site was removed and when it would be back. Explanations are user friendly - that kind of page is not.

What I did was copy the information from Google's copy of the site, so you could have some idea of what it said when it was there - and compare it to whatever it says when and if it returns:

"Fight identity theft by monitoring and reviewing your credit report. You may request your free credit report online, by phone or through the mail. Free credit reports requested online are viewable immediately upon authentication of identity. Free credit reports requested by phone or mail will be processed within 15 days of receiving your request.

This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help consumers to obtain their free credit report.

We guard your privacy.

This site's security protocols are designed to protect your personally identifiable information from unauthorized access or alteration. Measures include physical and
technological security and encryption of certain information."

I especially like that line about it being the official site to help consumers obtain their free credit report. Right, but wait, where'd it go? Yes, that would all be very good - if it were accessible.  Well, maybe it'll be back again by the time you read this.

But if not, here's the other ways to get your free credit report (from the FTC website):

"You can order your free annual credit report online at annualcreditreport.com, by calling 1-877-322-8228, or by completing the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mailing it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. When you order, you need to provide your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. To verify your identity, you may need to provide some information that only you would know, like the amount of your monthly mortgage payment."