Here's How to Get Your Free Credit Reports in 2023

What are you waiting for?

You probably thought you stopped getting report cards when you finished school, but that's not exactly true. You're constantly graded on how you handle borrowed money, and the results appear in your credit reports. Lenders use these, along with your credit scores, to decide whether they're willing to work with you and what kind of interest rate to charge on loans and credit cards.

It's a pretty big deal, yet a lot of people still don't have any idea what's in their credit reports or how it affects them. Fortunately, there's a simple way that anyone can view their credit reports for free in 2023.

All you have to do is ask

Federal law requires that all three major credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion -- provide one free credit report per year to anyone who asks for it. And since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, you've actually been able to request new reports weekly.

You can access these through AnnualCreditReport.com. There are other sites out there that claim to offer free credit reports, but a lot of these require you to sign up for a paid credit monitoring service. Or worse, they could be created by a scammer trying to steal your identity. So stick to AnnualCreditReport.com if you want to avoid these issues.

In order to view your credit report, you'll have to fill out a form. This asks for some basic personal information, like your name, birthday, Social Security number, and address history for the previous two years.

Then, you'll need to choose which credit reports you'd like to view. You can order reports from all bureaus at once or space them out throughout the year. This is largely down to personal preference. But while the credit bureaus are still offering free weekly reports, there's no reason not to check all three at once.

After you've selected the reports you want, the site will ask you some identity verification questions. These might be about which bank you have your mortgage through or which street you lived on a decade ago. They're designed to be challenging questions only you would know so identity thieves can't gain access to your credit information. After you've passed that test, you can view your reports.

What you'll find

Your credit reports list details of all your credit accounts. This includes credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, and mortgages. It should show your total outstanding balance and details of your payment history, including whether you've ever made late payments on the account.

Credit reports from the three bureaus typically have similar information, but there might be some accounts that only show up on one or two reports. Perhaps the lender only reported the loan or credit card to some of the credit bureaus instead of all of them. That's not a huge deal for you, but it could account for some of the differences you see in your credit scores based on each report.

Speaking of credit scores, you won't get access to these with your free credit reports. If you'd like to see your scores, you can request them from paid services, like myFICO. Some credit cards now enable you to access your credit scores for free as well.

How to use this information

You can use the information in your credit reports to identify areas where you could improve your financial habits. For example, if you've made late payments in the past, working to avoid these in the future will help raise your credit scores.

Even if your credit scores are high, it's still smart to check your reports at least annually for errors. Some of these might be innocent enough. A lender may have failed to report that you've paid off a loan, causing it to still show up on your credit report. Other errors could be a sign of identity fraud. If you see accounts with banks you've never worked with or loans you don't recall taking out, that's a sign that something's wrong.

When you spot an error in your credit report, you should notify the credit bureau who created the report and the lender associated with the account immediately. If you have proof that you've paid off a loan that's still shown as unpaid, be sure to provide copies of your documents to prove your point.

It can take some time to correct errors in your credit report because the lender and credit bureau will have to conduct an investigation into the matter. But stick with it and follow up as necessary to get the issue resolved. If the credit bureau updates your credit report, it will provide you with a free copy showing the change.

Reviewing your credit reports usually doesn't take that long, and it can pay off big time when you need to borrow money. So find some time in 2023 to review your reports and, if you spot any opportunities for improvement, add them to your list of financial goals for this year.