I want to know if any of you guys/gals can give me some good advice as to how to get a detailed credit report either for free or paid. The kind that access the 3 major credit bureaus and gives the entire report along with the beacon score. Thanks so much.

 

You will need to call the three major credit reporting agencies yourself, and order a copy of your report from them.

This is the only way I know of to obtain a detailed report, listing all the accounts you've had, etc.

They will want you to pay a fee - BUT!!

Just tell them you were denied credit. By law, if you request your credit report withing 60 days of being denied any credit, they must provide you a copy free of charge. And guess what - they never seem to check to see if you were actually denied credit or not, so if you say that you were, you'll get your report.

At least one of the agencies (can't remember which) has an automated system for ordering your report - and one of the questions is whether you have been denied credit - I always answer yes, and always get a report free of charge.

I was a victim of identitiy theft several years ago, so I keep on top of my credit reports - checked at least once a year.

This will not get you your beacon score, however. It is possible that if you took your reports to a bank, or any other place that can check credit, they can give you the score based on your documentation. Having your "credit run" actually drops your beacon score a point or so, so you don't want to make official inquiries unless absolutely necessary. But having your reports on hand might save you this.

The "Big Three" are:

Experian: www.experian.com
Trans-Union: www.transunion.com
Equifax: www.equifax.com

~HH

 

Or you could just be a sneaky ho and get your credit report AND your score from all three agencies for free.

You've seen those "get your free credit report" sites, right? Well, the only reason it's free is that they sign you up for this "credit watch" or "credit monitoring" program, which is free for 30 days and then they bill you. They either bill you monthly or bill you a big charge for the year.

The trick is to not forget to cancel before the 30 days are up. I was stupid and I forgot two cancel two of them until 31 days, at which point, the online canceling system didn't work but a little conversation with the reps on the phone about how "oh i forgot!" cancelled things just fine.

www.freecreditprofile.com
www.creditexpert.com
www.equifax.com (has a "Credit Watch" program)

I believe that each of these takes their score/report from a different agency.

 

That's what I did before I refinanced my house and we bought some other toys. Really good to let you know where you are at and what to expect. I cancelled mine after 2 weeks, didn't need it anymore and didn't want to deal with the possible charge if I was late.

Good luck.

 

Thanks a lot for your input guys.