Getting Your Credit Reports

Here are some basic principals to know before obtaining your credit reports:

• You will want to get 3 reports.
• You will want to get all 3 scores.
• True FICO scores are usually better than educational scores.

We will provide our service to you if you only have one report and no score whatsoever, but this is not the best way for you to go. You need to have all three reports (Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian) to check and see what is on all three reports. Not all creditors report credit information to all three bureaus. Different information and errors can show up on one report, and not the other two. There is no way of knowing what is on each individual report unless you review them all.

There are a gazillion places on the internet to get your credit report. Most you do not want any part of, especially the ones that offer free reports. There is no free lunch, and that is especially true when it comes to credit. These businesses will provide you educational reports, maybe three reports and one score, and then sign you up for their monthly credit monitoring service and bill you every month, unless you cancel.

We would like to be able to pull credit reports for you if you wished, but unfortunately we can not. Because we are not making a credit offer to you, the credit bureaus will not allow us to pull your credit report.

Best Options for Getting Your Credit Reports

• Do you already have them? If any lender has pulled your credit within the past 30 days, we can use those credit reports.
• www.annualcreditreport.com You can pull all three reports once a year for free from this site. These will be educational scores, not FICO scores. The reports are free, but if you want the scores, you will have to pay for those yourself. The scores cost about $6 a piece. If you are not planning on obtaining significant credit anytime soon, such as a mortgage or car loan, then these reports and scores should work fine for you. You will definitely want to purchase all three of your scores.
• www.myfico.com From this site, you can go in and get all three credit reports and all three credit scores, and they are all FICO scores. Why is it best to get FICO scores? Because these scores are used by most major lenders. The FICO scores will be different scores than the educational scores from other businesses out there. Unless you can get copies of your reports and scores from a mortgage lender, chances are www.myfico.com will be the only place you will be able to purchase FICO scores for all three bureaus. This costs $44.85 per person for all three credit reports and all three FICO scores. However, if you are planning on any major purchases in the near future, then this is the site I would recommend using.

Getting reports directly from Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian?

You can do this, but this is not what I would recommend. Why? Because only Equifax will be giving you a true FICO score. Trans Union and Experian will be giving you ג€œeducationalג€ scores. These scores are not used by any lenders that I am aware of. If you are going to go with ג€œeducationalג€ scores rather than FICO scores, my belief is that you would be better off getting the free reports from www.annualcreditreport.com and then simply buying the scores from the individual bureaus for about $6 a piece.

NOTE: If you commit to using our service and need assistance in getting your credit reports, we will assist you. I have gotten my own credit reports from both www.annualcreditreport.com and www.myfico.com just to see how it would work for our clients. I found both processes to be simple and straightforward. However, if you do have any difficulty, we will be glad to help you.