Consumer
Financial
Protection Bureau
Learn more at consumernance.gov 1 of 3
Check your credit report
at least once a year
It’s good to check your credit
reports at least once a year.
You can receive free copies of your
credit reports every 12 months from
annualcreditreport.com. This is the only
authorized online source under federal law
that provides free credit reports from the three
major national credit reporting companies—
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Equifax offers an additional six free credit
reports every 12 months, through December 31,
2026. When you visit the site, you may see steps
to view more frequently updated reports online.
This gives you a greater ability to monitor
changes in your credit.
Other websites that promise free credit reports
may require you to sign up for “free trials” that
eventually charge you or try to sell you other
products or services you may not need.
Check your credit report to:
§ Be sure your information is correct and
up-to-date
§ Look for any errors
§ Double check that your report only contains
information about you, to guard against
identity theft
§ Fix any mistakes that you nd
Mistakes in your credit reports, or fraud caused
by identity theft, can make borrowing more
expensive or prevent you from getting credit.
Common mistakes in credit
reports include:
§ Loans and credit accounts you’ve never
opened
§ Misspelled name, wrong Social Security
number, wrong address, or phone number
§ Accounts wrongly listed as late, incorrect
balances, incorrect credit limits, closed
accounts listed as open, incorrect
delinquency dates, or accounts listed more
than once
§ Accounts not correctly listed as “current”
when payments were subject to relief during
the COVID-19 pandemic
Dispute mistakes you nd
Your credit report includes information about
how to dispute a mistake. Generally, you
should send a dispute letter both to the credit
reporting company and to the company that
was the source, or “furnisher,” of the information
(for example, your credit card company).
Your dispute should clearly explain what you
think is wrong and why. State the facts, explain
why you are disputing the information, and
request that it be corrected.
Consumer
Financial
Protection Bureau
Learn more at consumernance.gov 2 of 3
In your dispute letter, you may want to enclose
a copy of the relevant portion of your credit
report. Highlight the items in question.
Also, include copies of documents that
support your position. Never send your original
documents. Keep copies of your dispute letters
and enclosures.
The credit reporting company and the furnisher
should investigate the dispute and x any
mistake. If the disputed information is wrong or
cannot be veried, the company that provided
the information must delete or change it and
provide a correction to the credit reporting
companies that received it. If an investigation
doesn’t resolve your dispute led with a
consumer report company, you can ask that a
statement of the dispute be included in your
credit le and in future credit reports.
You don’t need to pay for
credit monitoring
Many companies that promise free credit
reports want to sign you up for credit
monitoring services or other products.
You can take these free or lower-cost steps
to protect yourself.
If you have complaints or concerns about a
credit monitoring service, contact the Federal
Trade Commission, 877-FTC-HELP.
Monitor your credit yourself
Under the law, you are entitled to a free
credit report every 12 months from each of
the nationwide credit reporting companies.
You can get these reports all at once, or
spread them out. For example, you could
visit annualcreditreport.com in January to
get your Experian report, in April to get your
Equifax report, and again in August to get your
TransUnion report. By rotating your requests
this way, you can keep an eye on your credit
records throughout the year for free.
Put the freeze on identity thieves
You do not need to pay a credit monitoring
service to stop thieves from opening accounts
with your information. Contact Equifax,
Experian, and TransUnion and ask that they
put a freeze on your credit reports. A freeze
prevents prospective lenders from accessing
your credit le unless you lift the freeze for
that lender or for a specied period of time.
Typically, lenders won’t offer you credit if they
can’t access your credit reporting le, so a
freeze prevents you or others from opening
accounts in your name. Freezes are free.
Request a fraud alert
If you believe that you have been or are about
to become the victim of identity theft or fraud,
you can place a fraud alert on your credit report.
A fraud alert requires lenders to take steps
to verify your identity before opening a new
account at your request, or issuing an
additional credit card or increasing the credit
limit on an existing account. You can also
provide a telephone number so lenders can
call you to verify your identity (a fraud alert
does not prevent a lender from opening credit
in your name).
Consumer
Financial
Protection Bureau
Learn more at consumernance.gov
TIP: If you suspect that an error on your
report is a result of identity theft, you
need to le a dispute to correct it. For
information about identity theft and
steps to take if you have been victimized,
you can also visit the Federal Trade
Commission’s identity theft website:
ftc.gov/idtheft
Se
rvicemembers: Consider an
active-duty alert
If you are a member of the military on active
duty, you may place an “active-duty alert” on
your credit report to reduce the risk of identity
theft. This alert lets a prospective lender know
that you are on active duty and could be out
of the country, so the lender is required to
take reasonable steps to verify your identity
before issuing credit in your name. You can also
request free credit monitoring from Equifax,
TransUnion, and Experian. More information
can be found on the CFPB website under
“Credit reports & scores.”
If you are a veteran, some types of medical debt
can be removed from your credit report. You
need to le a dispute with the credit reporting
company and provide proof that the VA is either
liable for the debt or in the process of paying it.
About us
The Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau regulates the offering and
provision of consumer nancial products
and services under the federal consumer
nancial laws, and educates and
empowers consumers to make better
informed nancial decisions.
Learn more at consumernance.gov
Connect with us
Submit a complaint
consumernance.gov/complaint
Tell your story
consumernance.gov/your-story
Get answers to money questions
consumernance.gov/askcfpb
Share your thoughts
facebook.com/cfpb
twitter.com/cfpb
3 of 3
7/2020
