Monitor Your Credit Report
You've probably heard that you should check your credit report at least once a year for errors and signs of identity theft, but you may not know that federal law entitles you to receive your credit report for free once a year.
You can obtain your free credit reports through www.annualcreditreport.com - but be careful. The Federal Trade Commission warns that a number of sites using similar URLs are really sales outlets. Obtaining your free credit report does not require entry of your credit card information!
If you'd like to obtain your free credit reports from all three major credit bureaus, and do so without risk of being unwittingly registered for a reporting service that will bill you monthly or in a lump sum for the entire year, you can follow links from the FTC's website at www.ftc.gov to place those orders.
Actually, each of the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Transunion, and Experian) are required to provide a free credit report once a year.
You should spread it out so that you're getting one credit report every four months. The information provided by the different agencies will likely have some variations, but the major stuff will be in there.
It is true that you are entitled to one report from each of the three major bureaus each year, and some experts do recommend staggering them. Whether they are ordered at the same time or at intervals, they can be requested through www.annualcreditreport.com, which provides a separate link for requesting your credit report from each bureau.
It is important, though, that you look at all three reports. The differences among them can be more significant than you might expect.
here it says http://www.moneysavingfreetips.com/trw-free-credit-report.html you can get a free credit report if you fall into any one of those criteria... anyone ever gotten a free credit report?
how did you go about the process?
You generally want to avoid using commercial sites to order "free" credit reports--they will often mislead you into signing up for paid memberships or purchasing other products in order to get your "free" report. Everyone is entitled to one free copy of his/her credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus every year--no criteria required.
In some states, you may be entitled to more.
The best and safest source of information about obtaining your free credit report is the Federal Trade Commission.