Page 38 - Winning The Credit Game Bundle (CK Patrick)

26 THE CREDIT GAME

ANNUALCREDITREPORT.COM

AnnualCreditReport.com is the official website to check your credit
report. This website is actually regulated by the government, which
requires that it provide a free credit report to everyone at least once per
year. During emergency times like the COVID-19 pandemic, the
government may even mandate that free scores be made available to
people more frequently to allow them to stay on top of their credit
during times of economic upheaval.
That’s how important credit reports are: free access to them is
considered a fundamental right that is protected by the government.
And the government must mandate that they be made freely available
at least once per year, because they are valuable enough that many
people would pay for access.
As of this writing, all three credit bureaus are offering free credit
reports on a weekly basis instead of an annual one due to the economic
hardship posed by COVID-19. Since we cannot guarantee that will last
forever, I will write the rest of this chapter with the assumption that
the credit bureaus will eventually revert to offering these scores only
once per year.
One important thing to know is that you don’t have to pay for
access to your credit report once per year. Some credit bureau websites
may display misleading messages implying that you can’t see your
credit score or report at all unless you subscribe to a paid service. This
is not the case: if you go to a website and receive such a message, hunt
around until you find a link that allows you to go to your free credit
report instead. This must be offered to you freely. It is a federal
requirement.
The fact that, in typical times, the government only requires that
you be offered your credit report freely once per year can be an imped-
iment to some people. How are we to know if our credit building
efforts are working if we can only access our reliable report once per
year?
Well, there’s good news: there are three different bureaus which
provide FICO credit score estimates to banks, landlords, employers,