Free Credit Report

If you're like most people, you see offers for free credit reports every day. Unfortunately, many of these offers are either not "real" or not useful for you.
The problem is compounded by the fact that most people are vaguely aware that there is a new law that does indeed entitle them to a free credit report (This new law is called the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)).

First and foremost -- there is ONE and ONLY ONE place to get the free credit report that is the result of this new law. The site is https://www.annualcreditreport.com and the way to verify this is to go to the FTC's website at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the government bureau which oversees the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

The next important fact to realize is that a "credit report" is not a "credit score".
This is a crucial fact! To get a mortgage or other type of loan the lender looks at your credit score. The credit report does NOT give you your credit score.

See the next post for details on credit scores.