Personal Finance

Federal law makes it possible for every U.S. citizen to obtain a free copy of his/her credit report, from each of the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, once each year. The free report contains information such as: payment histories, loan balances, and whether or not a person has been sued, arrested or filed for bankruptcy. It does not contain a person's credit score. A person's credit score is a numerical measure of his/her creditworthiness that is used by lenders and other individuals and institutions. It ranges from 300-850 and is based on information such as a person's payment history, how close he/she is to his/her credit limits, and the type of credit he/she has previously obtained. The higher a person's credit score, the better is his/her perceived creditworthiness. A high credit score usually translates into lower interest rates on the money a person borrows.

Each of the major credit reporting agencies uses a different scoring system. The scoring system used by most lenders is the FICO system, which is named after its creator Fair Issac Corporation. Equifax uses the FICO system, but calls it "Score Power". Experian and TransUnion use their own, proprietary, scoring models that try to estimate a person's FICO score. Long story short is that if a person wants to get a look at the same score that a lender is going to see, he/she should get his/her credit report from Equifax. A caveat is in order, however. The FICO score a person purchases from Equifax may differ from the one seen by his/her lender because the scores were obtained on different days, at different times. That is, a person's credit score is constantly changing and two requests for a FICO score may differ if they were received and processed on different days, at different times.

Once a person obtains a copy of his/her credit report, he/she should scrutinize it for anything inaccurate or unusual. If anything is found, a person should notify both the credit reporting agency and the creditor, by phone and in writing. The credit reporting agency that issued the report must investigate and forward all of the data provided to them about the inaccuracy to the organization that gave them the information in the first place. If it turns out that the information is indeed incorrect, the organization that provided the inaccurate information must notify Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and the credit reporting agency that originally reported the incorrect information must provide the aggrieved person with a free, corrected, credit report.

Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has an official link to the free annual credit report site. Using this link ensures that you get directed to the correct site. Remember, this site gives you a free report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies once per year, but no credit scores.
Equifax. This is the site where you can obtain a credit report containing your FICO score.
Experian. You can get a credit score that estimates your FICO score here.
TransUnion. You can also get a credit score the estimates your FICO score here.
myFICO.com. Fair Issac Corporation runs a comprehensive web site devoted to credit reporting and personal finance. It contains a nice section of the details of FICO scoring.

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