You can pull your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion for free every week at AnnualCreditReport.com, and checking your own report doesn’t affect your score. Make it a weekly habit so a fraudulent account or a costly mistake surfaces within a week instead of sitting there until your next yearly look.
Once a year is the legal minimum, not the limit. The Fair Credit Reporting Act guarantees one free report from each bureau every 12 months, and since 2023 all three bureaus have permanently let you pull one every week.
A year is a long time for a mistake to sit on your report. In a Federal Trade Commission study of 1,001 people, one in five found a mistake on one or more of their three reports. For 5%, the mistakes could raise what they paid for auto loans or insurance.
Fraud is the other reason to look often. An application someone files in your name leaves a hard inquiry, the record a lender makes when it pulls your report to decide on an application. A weekly check puts that in front of you within a week instead of months later.
Pull all three each week at AnnualCreditReport.com, the only site officially authorized for the free reports. Check every bureau, because some lenders report to only one or two of them. Scan for accounts you didn’t open, inquiries from lenders you never applied to, late payments or balances that aren’t right, and addresses where you’ve never lived.
If something is wrong, dispute it in writing with the bureau and with the company that reported it. If it looks like identity theft, report it at IdentityTheft.gov and freeze your credit at all three bureaus. A freeze is free, blocks new accounts in your name, and doesn’t affect your score.
Set a recurring reminder for the same day each week. Every new line on the reports should be something you recognize, and anything you don’t is your cue to act that day.
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