Getting a Free Credit Report Without a Credit Card

If you've had credit troubles, the paradox of improving your credit health is that 1) you need to review your credit report regularly, 2) credit reports are typically ordered online with a credit card, and 3) people with credit troubles often don't have credit cards. Credit cards are required to sign up for a free online credit report & trial offer to a credit monitoring service, but also to help confirm your identity.

Fortunately, this dilemma will be solved soon enough. Starting as early as December 2004, consumers can get a free credit report without a credit card from each national credit bureau (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) simply by asking, once every 12 months. This service is in response to the overwhelming movement to make the high impact credit reporting process more open and to help thwart identity theft.

The rollout of this program is specified by FACTA, the latest amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It will be complete by September 2005 nationwide. The regional implementation schedule is as follows:

Western states - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming: December 1, 2004.

Midwestern states - Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin: March 1, 2005.

Southern states - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas: June 1, 2005.

Eastern states - Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia - the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and all U.S. territories: September 1, 2005.
The online address where you can apply for free copies of your credit report by FACTA is http://www.annualcreditreport.com.

If you can't wait that long, you're entitled to a free credit report without a credit card from the bureaus for these reasons:

• You have been denied credit somewhere because of information in your credit report
• You are the victim of identity theft, and you place a fraud alert in your file
• Your file contains inaccurate information as a result of fraud
• You are on public assistance
• You are unemployed but expect to apply for employment within 60 days

Note that in most cases you won't get a free fico score, but if at all possible you should find a way to purchase this information as it gives you valuable insight about how lenders rate your ability to repay credit.

Fraud alerts

If you believe you're the victim of fraud, you can ask a credit bureau to put a fraud alert in your credit file. There are short-term alerts (90 days) and alerts that last 12 months or longer. Both processes provide a free credit report without a credit card; in the longer alert, you can get two free reports during the 12 month period. However, if this situation doesn't legitimately apply to you, don't use it, as the alerts can make getting new credit accounts more difficult by creditors doing extensive checks to prevent additional fraud.

For more information, call the credit bureaus or visit them online:

Equifax Information Service
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, GA. 30339
(800) 270-3435
www.equifax.com

Experian (formerly TRW)
P.O. Box 2106
Allen, TX. 75002
(888) 567-8688
www.Experian.com

TransUnion Corporation
(800) 888-4213
P.O. Box 390
Springfield, PA 19064-0390
www.transunion.com