• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Ask Liz Weston

Get smart with your money

  • About
  • Liz’s Books
  • Speaking
  • Disclosure
  • Contact

Q&A: The right site for free credit reports

May 17, 2021 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: It would appear you have been taken in by a scam. In a recent column, you state a free credit report may be obtained through www.annualcreditreport.com. I went to the site and filled out the information requested. Instead of receiving a credit report, it signed me up for a paid membership. I was able to cancel it but I did not receive any credit report.

Answer:
AnnualCreditReport.com, which has provided free credit reports since 2005, is not a scam. Unfortunately, many people navigate to the wrong sites and wind up being pitched credit monitoring or similar products. If you’re being asked for a credit card, you’re not on the right site.

One problem is that people search for terms such as “free credit report,” “annual credit report” or even “AnnualCreditReport.com” and click on the first link that comes up, not realizing that many search engines top their results pages with paid advertisements. The actual site, annualcreditreport.com, could be halfway down the page. The better way to access the site is to either click on a trusted link, such as the one provided here, or type the full URL into the address bar of your browser.

Related Posts

  • Q&A: Free credit report

    Dear Liz: I was trying to get my free credit report as you suggested in…

  • Q&A: Weekly free credit reports

    Dear Liz: In a recent column, you wrote that credit reports are now available weekly…

  • Is medical debt vanishing from credit reports?

    Health care bills are about to become far less threatening to the financial well-being of…

  • Q&A: Making sure your free credit report really is free

    Dear Liz: Please tell me again how to get my free credit report each year.…

Filed Under: Credit & Debt, Q&A Tagged With: Credit Reports, q&a

Primary Sidebar

Search

Copyright © 2025 · Ask Liz Weston 2.0 On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in