How many free credit reports per year can you get? At a minimum, 3 per year, but in practice, a whole lot more than that. Read on for an explanation and directions on where to get yours.
By law, normally you can get one free copy of your credit report per credit reporting agency per year. This means you can get a free TransUnion credit report, a free Equifax one, and a free Experian one each year, for a total of 3 per year.
You can get them all at once, a couple at once and one later, or spread them out throughout the year.
You should check each of your credit reports at least once a year to make sure everything is correct.
(See How to Get a Credit Report for Free for directions on exactly how and where to get them.)
Annual Credit Reports Have Become Weekly Credit Reports 3 Credit Reporting Agencies
During the pandemic, the credit reporting agencies allowed people to get their free credit reports weekly instead of yearly.
That program has since been permanently extended, which means that in practice you can get a total of 156 free credit reports per year — one per week from each of the 3 major credit reporting agencies.
You can get your free weekly credit reports the same way folks got the free annual ones in the past: by going to AnnualCreditReport.com and filling out a form. These reports do not include your credit score, and the sites will try to sell you additional services. But you can say no to those and just get the report.
Reasons You May Be Able to Get Even More Copies
You can also always get free copies of your credit reports in some other cases too. This is true even if you already got your annual report (or weekly now.)
Those other cases are if:
- you’ve been denied credit, insurance, or a job because of what’s on a credit report. (But you have to ask for them within 60 days of being notified.)
- you place a fraud alert on your file because you’re the victim of identity theft, or if something is incorrect because of fraud.
- you’re on public assistance
- you’re unemployed but planning to apply for a job within 60 days
And remember, getting a copy of your credit report does not hurt your credit score. It just lets you keep an eye on things.