My wife and I are considering refinancing our mortgage. I know my credit score, but my wifes has gone unchecked for years. Notwithstanding all of the “free” credit reports advertised, I know there is an actual free report. I believe it can be checked once a year, and there is no subscription involved. I believe it is a government site.(?)
Does anyone know of this?
It’s http://www.annualcreditreport.com. You can check each of your 3 credit reports annually, so you should stagger them. Check 1 now, one in 4 months, the last in 4 more months, then check the original again in a year. So you only go 4 months without checking your credit report, but 12 months between each specific report.
Thank you most graciously!
You will still have to shell out a few dollars for your scores. Only the reports are free.
Beware: Experian no longer offers the FICO score to consumers. You’ll get their own bullshit score instead.
Neither I nor my wife have borrowed anything in well over 15 years. Plus we always pay our credit cards in-full and on time. Would I even have a FICO score?
Of course. You are borrowing for a term of less than a month when you use your credit cards. It doesn’t matter if you avoid interest or not, although the latter will give a slightly higher score if paid consistently on time.
Just for this alone, spend the money with a complete credit profile.
You can also get a free credit report if you’ve had any adverse action taken against you by a current or prospective creditor. Even a refusal for a higher credit line from a creditor that you’ve always paid on time would qualify you for a free credit report directly from the credit bureau as long as the creditor used that credit bureau’s report in making their decision.
Is it possible to get a British credit report from overseas? It was difficult but not impossible to get my American report when I was in Britain, and I’d like to know my British credit score, since the two systems don’t seem to talk to each other at all.
And if you were denied credit these are the links to use depending on what agency denied you credit
Trans Union - http://annualcreditreport.transunion.com/tu/disclosure/currentSituation.jsp
Experian - Experian Report Access for Adverse Actions
Equifax - https://aa.econsumer.equifax.com/aad/landing.ehtml