Free Government Annual Credit Report Online
If you are looking for the lowest mortgage rates in North Carolina contact us at 919-869-8200.
A credit score greatly affects the mortgage interest rate and ability for borrowers to qualify for a home mortgage. If you want to know more how a credit score affects your mortgage go to this link. When starting the process of looking for a low interest rate home loan we would suggest that borrowers make certain their credit report is free of any errors. Remember that a credit report and a credit score are much different. A credit report is simply the report a credit agency has on all your debts and financial obligations. A credit score is the number value, between 300 and 850, that is assigned to your creditworthiness.
The Federal Government offers a free annual credit report at annualcreditreport.com. This government website will allow Americans to acquire all three credit reports from Experian, Transunion and Equifax. The free credit reports can be acquired at one time or they can be spread out over a year. If you are looking to improve your credit it might be a wise choice to check one credit report in April, fix some of the errors or pay off some high interest rate debts, then in August or September check one of the other free reports. Americans can receive one free report from each bureau per 365 days.
It is very important to understand that the government free annual credit report online does not include a credit score. To get a credit score from Experian, Transunion or Equifax you will have to pay a fee. These fees range from as little as $14.95 to as much as $34.95 for premium services. When purchasing a credit score online always read the fine print. Many websites will automatically sign you up for a monthly credit monitoring service. The service may be free for the first three months but after that it could be $9.95 per month. If you do not cancel this service you may be paying a subscription fee of $9.95 for several months, or even years, and never know it. A quick tip is to immediately call and cancel the credit monitoring service so you do not have to worry about getting hit with the fees. Unfortunately, some of the online credit score companies will not allow you to cancel until 30 days prior to the first paid month. Put a reminder in your smartphone and make sure to call and cancel at the proper date.
The government free annual credit report is very useful because it shows borrowers what loans and debts they have outstanding. It will also show the loans that have been paid in full. You may not realize it but there could be some uncollected bills from several years ago. You may have signed up for a book club or a store credit card without realizing the debt was completely paid off. This happens many times with individuals who have a small balance credit card that was used when they first started to build their credit. They may have a credit card from college that had a limit of $500 or less. Even if a borrower owes as little as $25 on this card it can still hurt a credit score if it goes unpaid. We would strongly suggest monitoring your credit report on a consistent basis.
If you are willing to pay down high interest rate debts and you remain consistent with your monthly payments the chances are you have a good credit score. Anything above a 700 would be considered “good”. Anything above a 750 would be considered “excellent”. There are a number of credit card companies that currently offer a credit score as a free service for card members. Discover Card and First National of Omaha are two credit card companies that offer a free monthly credit score for card holders. You may want to log in to your credit card dashboard to see if you have the free service of a credit score. Note that each credit card company only offers a credit score from one of the three credit bureaus and the credit score may differ depending on the bureau.
Ultimately, the free government annual credit report is a great opportunity to confirm that your credit history is correct. Head on over to annualcreditreport.com and start the process today if you haven’t checked your credit history in several years. It will be well worth the effort to do this if you want to qualify for the lowest possible mortgage interest rates. Feel free to call us anytime at 919-869-8200 if you would like to start the process of applying for a mortgage today.
