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Helpful Tips On Obtaining Your Free Instant Credit Report Online

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act 2003 requires that the three top credit bureaus; Equifax, Experian and TransUnion provide free annual credit reports to anyone that orders one. The three bureaus have created and jointly hosted a website where consumers can order their instant credit reports for free. They also provide a toll free telephone number and a mailing address which can be used by consumers to apply for their reports. The Act also mandates that consumers should be able to get their credit scores for a small fee, along with explanations about the factors involved in the score computation.

Credit reports are important for two reasons - first, so you can spot any errors in your credit history and financial transactions and have them corrected immediately. An error could cause you to get labeled as a credit risk and classify you with bad credit which in turn means lower loan amounts and higher interest rates when you attempt to take out a loan in the future. The second reason for ordering your credit information is to make sure that any apparent identity theft can be identified and corrected.

Getting your credit score can also prove beneficial before you apply for a loan - any lender looks at your score before nailing down the interest rates on your loan. With a good score, you will be in a position to negotiate a better deal for yourself.

You are eligible to get three free credit reports, one from each bureau, every year. By going online to www.annualcreditreport.com, you can get your free report. You can choose to order all three together or choose to order one at a time over a period of one year. If you would like to keep track of your credit transactions through a whole year, ordering the three reports at different times would make sense. Although you can order by telephone or mail you should expect a wait time of a few weeks before your report arrives.

However, when you go online to order you not only get instant credit report, you can actually do so from the comfort of your home. Another point in favor of getting your report online from home is that you will have all your credit documentation close at hand to reference as required or needed. How will you get your credit report copy from the website? Once you log into the site mentioned above, you will be asked to enter some information like your name, address, date of birth and social security number. Then you can choose the bureau or bureaus whose reports you want to receive information from. After you make this choice, each bureau will set its own set of questions for you to answer in order to confirm your identity. This could be any unique information that is supposed to be known only to you, like the balance amount on a particular credit card account you hold.

Once your identity is verified, your instant credit report will be available at your finger tips! You will have the option to print this report or to save it as a file on your computer. After this, you can choose to go for additional services like getting your credit score etc. (note, these normally require a small charge or fee).