Update: This offer has been extended through 4/20/22! Be sure to check your reports frequently for errors or potential identity fraud!
Related post: The Ultimate Guide To Credit Cards And Points: Where To Start And What You Need To Know About The Best Cards For You!
Originally posted on 4/21/20:
AnnualCreditReport.com is the only government authorized source for your Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion credit reports.
Normally you can access each of those reports for free once every 12 months, but due to coronavirus, you can access each of those reports for free every week through April 2021!
Many people are receiving help on their credit cards, auto lease, and mortgage due to COVID-19 hardships just by asking for it.
Per the CARES act, lenders offering help and agreeing to a new payment plan must state that payments are current on your credit report. You must be current with your payments before requesting help due to COVID-19 in order to be reported as current.
From the CFPB:
“The recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act places special requirements on companies that report your payment information to credit reporting companies. These requirements apply if you are affected by the coronavirus disease pandemic and if your creditor makes an agreement (called an “accommodation” in the Act) with you to defer a payment, make partial payments, forbear a delinquency, modify a loan, or other relief.
How your creditors report your account to credit reporting companies under the CARES Act depends on whether you are current or already delinquent when this agreement is made.
- If your account is current and you make an agreement to make a partial payment, skip a payment, or other accommodation, then the creditor is to report to credit reporting companies that you are current on your loan or account. This applies only if you are meeting the terms of the agreement.
- If your account is already delinquent and you make an agreement, then your account will maintain that status during the agreement until you bring the account current.
- If your account is already delinquent and you make an agreement, and you bring your account current, the creditor must report that you are current on your loan or account.
This CARES Act requirement applies only to agreements made between January 31, 2020 and the later of either:
- 120 days after March 27, 2020 or
- 120 days after the national emergency concerning COVID–19 ends.
The CARES Act also applies to certain federal student loans and includes requirements relating to suspending payments and credit reporting. During the period that payments on federal student loans are suspended by the Department of Education, any payment that has been suspended is to be reported as if it were a regularly scheduled payment made by the borrower.”
It’s important to check your report to make sure that’s happening. If you see an account that’s not marked current, be sure to call the lender to ask them to fix it. Otherwise you can dispute the mark on your report by contacting Equifax disputes, Experian disputes, and TransUnion disputes.
Have you had success modifying your loans due to coronavirus? Are your accounts marked current?
Will it decrease my score every time i check thorugh AnnualCreditReport.com?
No.
These days with Mint, Creditkarma etc., and banks offering this for free is these any real benefit to this?
I don’t use any of those. No reason to have another source for your data to be hacked and have another company sell off and monetize your spending patterns and credit score.
y do u care how they monetize your spending pattern like really who cares
Yes, it’s a very comprehensive report.
This is a full report, not just a score. It lists all the activity.
Their scores are meaningless anyway. Just fairy tales.
How close do they come Bec my discover gives me one number. Another bank account gives me another and yet amex give another( pretty close to each other)
A tad bit lower then all those others that give me a really great number – fairy tail numbers.
Each of the places you get a score from may be using a different credit reporting agency. Each one has its own score.
if a bank gives someone a few months deferment on their mortgage, does this impact ones credit rating?
After April 2021, will we have to wait 12 months to get another report, or only until January 2022?
“Comments: Affected by natural disaster” on my mortgage account. This is not good. No will lend anything to me with that. I thought the banks weren’t allowed to affect your credit??
Call and ask why it’s not considered current as per the CARES act?
Otherwise, try disputing.
It says unable to submit online. Must request by mail. Any idea why.
had that with experian
wife had also issue with experian.
Same thing with Experian! (Must request by mail) Any idea why?
@dan when will we get that experian money from the lawsuit??
@Dan do you have any experience/knowledge about the identity theft protection or wallet insurances? (experian or others)
is the “credit score” offered by Barclays to some of their cc customers a legit number? my score dropped by 100 points in 1 month from an 811 to 709.
only negative thing I can think of where missed payments on 2 cards of $20 ish. banks have since removed late fees bec of covid19.
A late payment less than 30 days late shouldn’t affect your credit score as it doesn’t get reported
I don’t know any other reason for such a HUGE drop. tried calling transunion to see if they had any info but couldn’t get a rep on the phone.
Why wouldnt you use Chase Credit Journey – you get pretty much the same thing in a very nice dashboard
https://www.chase.creditviewdashboard.com/CreditView/enroll1.page?
Thanks dan
does it count as a hard inquiry every time it is checked?
No.
soft pull?
what does n/r (not reported) mean? is it bad or good?
Does this give the credit bureaus 45 days to investigate disputes, instead of the normal 30 days?
anybody else getting System Error? i’ve tried a couple of times
Equifax and experian anyway allow free monthly credit checking.
Still waiting for our Equifax Data Breach Class Action Settlement funds. Any updates?
Link not working for me… 404
Never mind
My application gets rejected and idea why?
I only put in my address and info and didn’t answer any questions at all, this is what I get:
We are unable to confirm your identity
What happened:
The Identity Security System confirms your identity through a series of questions based on accounts and personal information contained in your Free Annual Credit Report. The system was unable to get enough information from the Free Annual Credit Report to complete this process.
Any way to get the actual score?
Dan, if you were late on car lease payments because we had Covid and didn’t realize it until they posted 3x on your credit report is there anything we can do
Dan, This ends tomorrow
https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2021/03/free-weekly-credit-reports-during-covid-extended-until-april-2022