Fortunately, this is quite easy to explain. Currently, there are three major credit bureaus, all from the private sector (non-government operated) who keeps track of the credit history of everyone that has a social security number or have any sort of credit history. These companies are Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

In a nutshell, each one pretty much does the same thing, just with some minor differences in the information contained and organized. To get a complete picture of your credit history, if you have all three free annual credit reports you have pretty much all you need to know about your credit history.

Now, under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) from the government, you are entitled to a free credit report every 12 months from EACH of the three major credit reporting companies/bureaus. This is your right. And to get your three free credit reports, simply go to annualcreditreport.com and sign up there.

Again, keep in mind that the FICO score, which is what many potential lenders will look at, is not a part of the free package, and when you sign up for the 3 free credit reports you will be asked to pay a reasonable fee for the FICO score as well. Another way to obtain your FICO score is to do a credit monitoring service trial and you will get one free annual credit report from each of the three bureaus as well as the FICO score for free whether you keep the service after the trial period or not. Click here to find out more about a reputable credit monitoring service.

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It’s really quite easy. To see your free credit reports (all three of them) with no strings attached, simply go to www.annualcreditreport.com and follow the simple directions and within a few minutes, you will have all three credit reports on your computer! Or for those of you who want hard copies, the website will tell you how to get it too.

If one set of the three credit reports once a year is all you are looking for, do NOT get it from any other sites, as you will have to pay for them. On the flip side, whenever you purchase the reports, typically you get to see the reports as often as you like during the year, in case you want to monitor the activities a little more closely than the average person.

The other scenario is where you’d get your free credit reports + FICO score when you sign up for a credit monitoring program. Most have trial offers and you are not obligated to continue after the trial period if you don’t want the monthly service. The reason this might be a good way to go is because you can end up getting the FICO score for free too.

There it is, the simply answer to how you get your free credit reports.