Your credit report is a detailed record of your credit accounts, balances, and payment history. Three nationwide credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — each maintain a report on you, and you are entitled to see them for free.
The official, free source: AnnualCreditReport.com is the only website federally authorized to provide your free credit reports. You can request a report from each of the three bureaus there, currently as often as every week. Be careful of lookalike sites that charge a fee or try to harvest your information — use the official site.
Other free ways to monitor your credit:
- Many banks and card issuers, including RMO, offer free credit score access to account holders.
- Each bureau offers its own free report and tools.
Credit report vs. credit score: the report is the detailed history; the score is a number calculated from it. A free credit report does not always include your score.
What to review on your report: your personal information, every account and its balance and payment history, credit inquiries, collections, and any public records. If anything looks wrong, you have the right to dispute the error.
Tip: request one bureau's report at a time, spaced through the year, to keep an eye on your credit at no cost.