About That Free Annual Credit Report

You're well-advised to know what your credit report says about you, in this age of identity theft and data-mongering by companies that seem indifferent to the damage they cause in the process of selling our most private information to almost anyone who'll pay for it.

You're also supposed to be able to get a free report every year from the "Big Three" credit companies -- Experian, Equifax and Trans Union -- by going to AnnualCreditReport.com and filling in the appropriate information.

Nice idea. But if your experience is like mine, good luck. I managed to get only my Experian report. The other two companies' sites refused to cooperate.

The Equifax server returned an error message -- and then claimed I'd already gotten a report when I tried again.

Trans Union's site asked me to input my credit card numbers (and other information) for verification, and then insisted that an absolutely correct number for one card was incorrect. The site eventually kicked me out, and said to call or write for the report.

If you've ever tried to deal with these companies on the phone, you know the futility. But I'll have to do it. I'll let you know what further nonsense they put me through.

Note: If you've used the AnnualCreditReport.com site, feel free to post about your experience below. I can't believe I'm the only one who's not having much luck with this.

Comments

[Giovanna]

I can't even access Annualcreditreport.com, it gives an error, saying "not found". Maybe is it because I'm in Italy? Good luck ;)

[The One True b!X]

I tried it months ago and gave up for mostly the same reasons (or strikingly similar). It was a time sinkhole that produced nothing at the end.

[Eric H]

I used it right when it was first announced in December. It worked fine, if a little weirdly, since there was a lot of duplication of effort as I was sent off to each company's free report pages to fill out their forms. AnnualCreditReport.com seemed really to just be an approved referrer or specialized link aggregator for this purpose, rather than any kind of one-stop destination for this info/request. I have received a few follow-up type emails from each agency, but nothing I felt I couldn't delete sight-unseen (living on the edge!).

[jojo]

I got my TransUnion credit report in early March by jumping through the hoops. As I recall, there was a lot of back and forth required and one of the ID questions wasn't quite clear (but I guessed the right answer). It all worked and I got the report.

[Kevin Scaldeferri]

TransUnion was definitely the trickiest when I did it. Unlike the multiple choice questions from the other two, they required you to enter in exact answers, often from 5-10 years ago, with unclear specification of the format expected. I got asked to enter my previous address in Pasadena (I have had three) and my American Express number (I've had 5). In both cases, I had to just keep trying until I found the right one.

[Bryan William Jones]

My experience mirrored yours almost exactly. I received one credit report from only one of the companies, but infuriatingly enough, found myself on the receiving end of spam from all three credit reporting agencies. Their system works well enough to gather your personal information for their own exploitation, but in terms of giving your the information you are supposed to receive, they are much less forthcoming.

[Kent Spillner]

Neither TransUnion nor Experian worked for me, and Experian even broke AnnualCreditReport.com's magic sauce (the little toolbar with the "Return to AnnualCreditReport.com" link disappeared). EquiFax worked fine, though.

Experian's "identity verification" questionnaire seems counter-productive to me: If Experian uses fraudulent credit activity to verify the requester's identity, how could an identity theft victim receive their credit report from Experian? For instance, they asked me two questions about my mortgage (who the lender is, and what the monthly payment is), but I don't have a mortgage.

Maybe they were trick questions, but since I didn't get my free credit report from them, how am I to know?

[AF]

Got TransUnion and Experian, but not Equifax.

Equifax asked if I'd had an auto loan from any of the following companies in any of the following time periods (it's multiple choice to verify you are who you claim to be.) Volkswagon was listed, but for the wrong year. I answered 'none of the above.' That was it - they kicked me out saying they would mail me my Equifax credit report to my home address, and charge the cost to my credit card.

[George Regan]

I was able to access all three reports without difficulty. The browser I used was Safari 1.2.4 on a Mac, but from the descriptions above (and yours) it sounds like the problem is on their end. Maybe they're getting it right now? We can only hope.

[bobel]

I did it the old fashioned way - I sent a snail mail letter to the provided address, got a form in the mail, filled out and returned the form and reports from all three showed up in my mailbox. I used their forms to request corrections which were promptly made and acknowledged. No spam either.

[john]

By phone, I ordered my once per year free credit report from equifax. That was on Feb. 22; it is now April 10. I have a confirmation number, but it is apparently impossible to talk to someone at equifax without your credit report and some identifying number. I have selected the "business customer" option from the phone menu, which is answered very quickly by a real person, but they refuse to provide any information to me whatsoever about the status of my credit report order. So, I have a confirmation number, but can't talk to anyone to get the status.

I give them another week, then I file a complaint with the FTC.

[Eric]

I got two of the three reports. The last one timed out and told me it had already given me my report.

The other two reports were essentially identical.

The site that errored out (don't remember which now) did give me an address where to write. (They never heard of email?)

They're obviously not interesting in making it a good experience.

[Raj]

I guess I'm in the minority here.. :-) I tried on the 2nd day it was available in my region (midwest) through Mozilla Firefox and had no problems accessing any of them. Got all my reports printed off without issue.

[Jozef Imrich]

As at five minutes ago and after three attempts the following the message on the website reads:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/notfound.htm

'The page cannot be found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.'

May your patience be in plentiful supply, Dan ...

[Travis]

Got mine without a problem.

[Andy]

I had no problem with any of these. I would say the experian multiple choice with "None of the Above" was a bit disturbing. Some of the answers were almost right, but not quite (like the model of my car was asked and they had the make listed with a different model). I wasn't sure that there wasn't some type of mistake that would disqualify my answer.

Luckily, I have no corrections to make. Better to check and find nothing than to not check and have tons of errors. Dan, keep working on it. An error can cause you tons of trouble down the road.

[Cranky Observer]

Just a reminder people: the typed, signed-in-blue-ink letter, addressed to the CEO with cc's to the CFO and Corporate Secretay, and sent via the US Postal Service - generally works wonders in these situations. Going around and around with phone support, or worse yet sending e-mail, is totally useless and does not preserve any of your legal rights.

Cranky

[Tim]

I used it and had absolutely no problems at all and I was surprised at how easy the process was.

[Davee]

Could only get Equifax to show me my report online. TransUnion asked me about information that was way too old for me to remember or dig up easily. And I answered questions at Experian correctly but they would only mail me a copy. Thank you for prompting me to do this, though. It was time to check them and I found one error just from the one I was able to view.

[andyman]

Like the Freedom of Information Act, they just f... with you, until you go away.

[formosa]

I am not able to access the website, either. I keep getting the following message:

"The page cannot be found
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable."

I am currently out of the country on business, maybe they block foreign IPs from accessing the site. This is sad. What if you are on a contract in a foreign country for a few months or a year? No report for you!

[sad]

No, it's not only foreign countries. I am here in San Diego, California and get that same error message as above by formosa.

[Dan Ryan]

I was also able to get only the Experian report. One of the others insisted I identify my mortgage company. None of the names were remotely similar, so I clicked none of the above. Then I was told this was the wrong answer and I wasn't allowed to retry. Some obscure and unanswerable gotcha kept me from accessing the other company's file..

[Eric]

I highly recommend calling the toll-free number on the annualcreditreport web site: 1-877-322-8228. It took me 8-10 minutes, and all three reports are being sent withing the next 15 days. The prompts asked for home phone, address (if not there for the last 2 years, it'll also ask you for your last address), name (it had some problems understanding my name, but it evenutally got it), and social security number. That was that.

[nasir jamil]

Almakaha Bulding Meterial Store Near Railway Gate Faqir Wali
Tehsil Haroon Abad Dis Bahawan Nagar

[Larry]

I mailed the request form in mid-March, about 15 days into the availability of the service in my area of the country. I have still not received my report. I wrote a letter of inquiry to the service on May 6 and have not received a reply yet (this is May 21). I called the service on May 17 and ordered a report through the automated service line.

[loan]

loan: "Cash Advance Payday Loans: Yes The Rates Are Higher!By: Greg Ford "
Loans: "Unsecured Loans: The Lesser Known Sibling Of Secured Loans By: Aditya Thakur "
Loan: "5 Signs You Need a Personal Loan By: Holly Bentz "

[Bill]

I filed for my free credit report back in March through annualcreditreport.com and so far have not received anything from even one company. What I would like to know is, who the heck do I complain to?