Did you know that it's federal law that the credit bureaus are obliged, on request, to give you one free copy of your credit report per year? This is in addition to their obligation to give you a copy of your credit report if you're turned down for credit based on a credit review. The key part to the process is that you need to ask for a copy of your credit report. If you don't ask, you don't get.
Before you get too excited please note that there is a big difference between your credit report and your credit score. Your credit report is a history of your credit activity. Your credit score is a mathematical calculation of your credit history represented most commonly as your FICO score.
Go to AnnualCreditReport.com
The credit bureaus are required by law to give you at least one free copy of your credit report per year but are not required to give you a free credit score. You can get your free credit report at Annual Credit Report. This is the official site set up by the three main credit bureaus to provide you with your free annual credit report. This is the only official site. Every other site with a variation of the domain name is just a lead capture service that wants to sell you credit products. The problem with AnnualCreditReport.com is that you only get your credit report and not your credit score. You can only get your credit score if you pay a fee, about $15 per credit score per bureau.
Ask your mortgage broker to do a tri-merge credit pull
This will give you your credit score from all three major bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and is the same score used by most mortgage lenders. The advantage to using your broker is that it is much cheaper.
Ross Hair is the Real Estate Advocate and President of Real Estate Investment Association, a social network for real estate investors. You can reach Ross by email at ross@RealEstateAdvocate.com.
