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Free credit reports are a big dollar business, but only one really is free |
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By Jamie Hanson
 The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the "Big Three" nationwide consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to provide you with a free copy of your credit report every 12 months. Prior to the Fair Credit Reporting Act a credit report could set you back nearly $10 each.
A credit report will include information on where you live and have lived in the past, how you pay your bills and whether you've been sued or arrested. It may list your current or past employers. It will also show if you have filed for bankruptcy. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, along with other agencies, make a profit by selling the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers, and other companies who will use it to appraise your for credit to make a major purchase, buy insurance, get a job or rent a house or apartment.
If you do a search under "free credit reports" you will get hundreds of results from companies who would love to sell you a credit report or ongoing credit monitoring. These sites are impostors whose real |
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