Get Your Free Annual Credit Report

Today is the first day that peo­ple in the Mid­west [includ­ing Ohio!] can take advan­tage of The Fair and Accu­rate Cred­it Trans­ac­tions Act of 2003. You can now get a free cred­it report on your­self once a year. Just make sure you print it out right away, at least from Equifax. They only give you once chance to do it and the site does­n’t have the best usabil­i­ty.

[via MeFi 12.01.2004] Free Annu­al Cred­it Reports

The Fair and Accu­rate Cred­it Trans­ac­tions Act of 2003 goes in to effect today. One of the major pro­vi­sions of the bill, is that con­sumers now have the right to one free report from each of the three major cred­it bureaus every 12 months.

Con­sumers in 13 West­ern states (Alas­ka, Ari­zona, Cal­i­for­nia, Col­orado, Hawaii, Ida­ho, Mon­tana, Neva­da, New Mex­i­co, Ore­gon, Utah, Wash­ing­ton, and Wyoming) may request a free annu­al cred­it report from Equifax, Exper­ian, and Tran­sUnion begin­ning today, Decem­ber 1.

Con­sumers in the Mid­west­ern states (Illi­nois, Indi­ana, Iowa, Kansas, Michi­gan, Min­neso­ta, Mis­souri, Nebras­ka, North Dako­ta, Ohio, South Dako­ta, and Wis­con­sin) can order their free reports begin­ning March 1, 2005.

Con­sumers in the South­ern states (Alaba­ma, Arkansas, Flori­da, Geor­gia, Ken­tucky, Louisiana, Mis­sis­sip­pi, Okla­homa, South Car­oli­na, Ten­nessee, and Texas) can order their free reports begin­ning June 1, 2005.

Con­sumers in the East­ern states (Con­necti­cut, Delaware, Maine, Mary­land, Mass­a­chu­setts, New Hamp­shire, New Jer­sey, New York, North Car­oli­na, Penn­syl­va­nia, Rhode Island, Ver­mont, Vir­ginia, and West Vir­ginia), the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, Puer­to Rico, and all U.S. ter­ri­to­ries can order their free reports begin­ning Sep­tem­ber 1, 2005.

Most impor­tant­ly two things:
The Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion and the three bureaus have set up one web­site and one hot­line to call: http://www.annualcreditreport.com & 877–322-8228.
http://www.annualcreditreport.com is the only Web site from which con­sumers are legal­ly enti­tled to receive a free annu­al cred­it report. If you go to Equifax’s, Expe­ri­an’s, or Tran­sUnion’s web­site, they can and will charge you.Your “cred­it score” in not includ­ed in this leg­is­la­tion, and if you want that you will have to pay the bureaus for it.

More infor­ma­tion can be found here:
FTC Press Release: Free Cred­it Report Roll­out Begins Wednes­day
Facts for Con­sumers: Your Access to Free Cred­it Reports [PDF]

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