Free Annual Credit reports

Since I talk about real estate with some regularity I thought I should share some personal experience around getting your credit report.

First things first, get your credit report when you are beginning to think about buying a home. If you have a low score you will need to address any inaccuracies or problems the report brings up or you won't get approved by a mortgage lender (or you will get charged a higher rate). In fact, you should probably get one annually anyways to avoid higher rates on credit cards and loans and to help avoid landlords from renting to you, etc.

Next, if you want a free credit report, use www.annualcreditreport.com. The federal government passed legislation allowing you to request a free report every 12 months and this is the site to do so. Those of you who try the others (like www.freecreditreport.com) beware - Read the fine print and you'll see that getting the report will sign you up for a subscription of some sorts that will charge you on a monthly basis until canceled. They typically say that if you cancel within 30 days you won't be charged. I'm not alleging that they're outright lying, but I canceled within 3 days and was charged for 4 months and was never able to recover the charges. Your mileage may vary, but why bother?