How Can I See My Credit Report?

Your power to borrow money depends on your reputation for repaying your debts. A credit report is a record of how you have paid your credit card debt and other loans. Your credit report shows how much debt you have, if you have made payments on time, or if you have not paid back some loans at all.

Credit reports don't show information about your race, religion, medical history, personal lifestyle, political preferences, specific purchases, criminal record, or any other information unrelated to credit.

Creditors rely on the information about how you've handled your loans in the past to decide how likely you are to repay a new loan. When you apply for a credit card or a loan, you give the creditor permission to order your credit report from a credit-reporting agency.

It's a good idea to order your credit report once a year to check if it's accurate and to see what creditors read about you.

Since the information on your credit report may vary from one agency to the other, you may want to order your report from all three of the major credit reporting agencies shown below:

Equifax
1-800-685-1111

Experian
1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742)

Trans Union Corporation
1-800-916-8800

Each agency will require your Social Security number, date of birth, current address, addresses for the past five years, and maiden name (if applicable). You may have to pay a small fee (usually less than $10) for each credit report, although some states require credit reporting agencies to provide you with one or two free reports every year.

Credit reports also are free if you've been denied credit. However, you must ask the agency that produced the credit report for a copy within a specific time frame, usually about 60 days.

Check out the Sample Credit Report to see what elements your credit report might contain.