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Articles » Free Annual Credit Report | | Most Asked Questions About Free Annual Credit Report |
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Does getting my free annual credit report affect my credit?
No, it doesn’t. Only credit inquiries made by prospective or current lenders – called hard inquiries – are reported to businesses that ask for a copy of your credit report. Your order for your annual credit report is considered a soft inquiry, and is not considered in the computation of your credit score. Soft inquiries will appear on your credit report when you request for your copy, but the information will not be sent to other parties.
Can one recheck the same report over if he/she did not print it?
When you order your credit report online – whether it is free or paid – you can revisit the website, access your report for 30 days, and print it. After this time, you will have to pay again to be able to view your credit report. When you order online, you will be asked to create a username and password. Remember to write down your username and password because you won’t be able to access your credit report without it.
What if one has already obtained one's free annual credit report and needs to obtain another one?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to get your free annual credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies once every 12 months. After you have obtained all three, you will need to pay for succeeding credit reports that you will order plus a sales tax, depending on your state. Many financial advisers suggest spacing your requests over the 12-month period so that you can monitor the accuracy and completeness of the information in your credit report. This will also allow you to save on the cost of paid credit reports.
If inquiries that I initiate appear will in my credit report, what should I do if I have to contact several lenders to look for a loan that gives the best rates?
There is a difference between searching for the best deal and searching for several deals. The credit reporting agencies take “rate shopping” into account, and distinguish between searching for the best rates for one loan versus searching for several credit lines. To minimize the effect that these hard inquiries will have on your credit report, limit your rate shopping to a short period, such as 14 days.
Comments
Rose March 10, 2009 08:17:01 PM 8:17 PM Getting free annual credit reports is easy these days. We can even order them by phone or by mail. But internet is the easy access and instant also I can say. But there are so many sites it is hard to tell which is official and which is not. So taking care of this is also important.
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