Your Credit Report: Get It Free, Read It, Freeze It

Your credit report is the record of how you've handled credit: your accounts, balances and payment history, any collections, and who has checked your credit. You can get yours from each of the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, free every week at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Reading one takes about 15 minutes once you know where to look. Freezing it, which stops anyone opening new credit in your name, is free and takes a few minutes at each bureau. Here's how to do all three, and what to look for while you're there.

Credit report vs. credit score

Your credit report is the detailed record. Your credit score is a three-digit number calculated from it, to sum up how risky you look to a lender. The CFPB explains that you have many different scores, depending on the scoring model and which bureau's report it uses.

The free reports at AnnualCreditReport.com don't include a score. Many card issuers and banks show you one for free, and our Credit Score Estimator gives you a rough range without a credit check.

A few other terms you'll see:

Credit history is what's in the report: your accounts and how you've paid them over the years.
A consumer disclosure is the full copy of your file you get when you ask for it yourself. It can include things lenders don't see, such as soft inquiries.
A background check is broader. It can include criminal and employment records as well as credit. An employer needs your written permission to check your credit, and must tell you if something in the report leads it to turn you down.

How to get your credit report for free

The CFPB says you can get a free report from each of the three bureaus once a week through AnnualCreditReport.com. You don't need a credit card, and checking your own report never affects your score.

Go to AnnualCreditReport.com. Type the address yourself. Look-alike sites with "free credit report" in the name often sign you up for a paid service.
Enter your name, address, date of birth and Social Security number.
Pick the bureaus. Get all three. Not every lender reports to every bureau, so your three reports can differ.
Answer the security questions each bureau asks, about past addresses or loans.
Save or print each report. You'll want a copy to compare against later, or to send with a dispute.

If you can't get through online, you can call (877) 322-8228 or mail the request form to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

Which report is best? None of them. They're three separate records, and a lender might check any one. That's why it's worth reading all three.

Renting an apartment? Landlords usually run their own check, sometimes through a tenant screening company that adds rental history and eviction records. Reading your own reports first means nothing in them comes as a surprise.

Need a business credit report? That's a separate system. AnnualCreditReport.com covers personal credit only.

How to read your credit report

Each bureau lays its report out a little differently, but they all have the same five parts. The CFPB lists them like this.

1. Personal information

Your name and any variations, current and past addresses, date of birth, Social Security number and phone numbers. It doesn't affect your score, but check it anyway. An address you've never lived at, or a name that isn't yours, can be a sign of identity theft or of someone else's information mixed into your file.

2. Accounts

This is the main part. Every credit card, loan and mortgage has its own entry, often called a tradeline. Here's what a typical one looks like, with made-up details:

Creditor: Example Bank Visa
Account type: Revolving (a credit card)
Opened: April 2019
Credit limit: $5,000
Balance: $1,240, as of the October 2026 statement
Status: Open, current
Payment history: 24 months shown, all current except one "30" in March 2025

That entry tells a lender you've had the card for more than seven years, you're using about 25% of its limit, and you were 30 days late once, in March 2025. Installment loans, like car loans and mortgages, show the original amount and what's left instead of a limit.

In the payment history, each month is marked as current or as 30, 60, 90 or more days late. "CO" means charged off: the lender wrote the debt off as a loss after months of missed payments, usually around 180 days. You still owe it. Our guide to late payments on your credit report explains how long each of these marks stays.

3. Collections

Debts that were sent or sold to a collection agency. Each one shows the agency, the original creditor, the amount and the date. If one isn't yours, or the amount is wrong, our guide to disputing a collection walks through it.

4. Public records

These days, that means bankruptcies. Experian says bankruptcy is now the only public record that appears on credit reports from the three bureaus. Civil judgments and tax liens were taken off in 2017 and 2018.

5. Inquiries

A list of who has looked at your report.

Hard inquiries happen when you apply for credit. They stay on your report for two years, but only count toward FICO Scores for the first 12 months.
Soft inquiries happen when you check your own credit, when a lender pre-screens you for an offer, or when a company you already do business with reviews your account. Only you see them, and they don't affect your score.

Can you remove hard inquiries? Only ones you didn't authorize. If you see an application you never made, dispute it, and check for other signs of identity theft. An inquiry from a real application stays for the two years.

What to look for: the errors that cost you

Go through each report with this list:

Accounts you don't recognize. These can be identity theft, or another person's account in your file.
Late payments you didn't make, or a "30 days late" that should read 60 or not appear at all.
Wrong balances or limits. A limit shown too low makes your credit utilization look higher than it is.
Closed accounts shown as open, or accounts you closed shown as "closed by creditor."
The same debt listed twice, such as a collection shown under both the original lender and the collector, each with a balance.
Old negative items. Most should drop off seven years after you first fell behind.
Payment plans or deferrals reported as late. If a lender agreed to let you skip or defer payments, ask how it would report the account, and dispute it if it shows late anyway. Keep the written agreement.

To fix an error, dispute it with the bureau showing it and with the company that reported it. The CFPB explains how to dispute an error; the company generally has 30 days to look into it. Disputing is free, and you don't need to pay anyone to do it for you.

Want to see what your balances add up to? Plug the balances and limits from your report into the Credit Utilization Calculator.

How to freeze your credit

A credit freeze, also called a security freeze, stops lenders from pulling your report to open new accounts. Since most lenders won't approve credit without checking your report first, a freeze makes it very hard for anyone to open a card or loan in your name.

What the CFPB says about it:

It's free to place and to lift, at all three bureaus.
It's fast. Online or by phone, a bureau has to place the freeze within one business day, and lift it within one hour. By mail, it's up to three business days.
You have to freeze each bureau separately. Freezing one doesn't freeze the others.
It doesn't affect your credit score, and you can still get your own reports.
Your existing accounts keep working. Lenders you already have accounts with can still see your report, and so can some government agencies. The free freeze also doesn't cover checks for employment, tenant screening or insurance.

To freeze your credit, set up an account on each bureau's freeze page:

Save the login or PIN each one gives you. You'll need it to lift the freeze later.

Children under 16 can have their credit frozen too. A parent or guardian can ask each bureau to freeze a child's file, and if the child doesn't have one, the bureau creates a frozen record that can't be used for credit.

How to unfreeze your credit

When you apply for a loan, card or apartment, log in at each bureau where your credit is frozen and lift the freeze. You can lift it for a set period, such as two weeks, after which it freezes again by itself, or remove it completely. Ask the lender which bureau it checks, and you may only need to lift that one.

Online or by phone, the lift happens within an hour, so you can do it the same day you apply.

Freeze vs. lock vs. fraud alert

A freeze is your legal right. It's free, it lasts until you lift it, and it's the strongest of the three.
A credit lock works much like a freeze, but it's a product the bureaus sell, often as part of a paid package. The CFPB says locks are no more effective than freezes.
A fraud alert doesn't block anyone. It tells lenders to take extra steps to confirm it's really you before opening credit. You only contact one bureau, and it tells the other two. An initial alert lasts one year. If you're a victim of identity theft, you can get an extended alert for seven years with an identity theft report. Service members can get a one-year active-duty alert.

If your information has been in a data breach, or your wallet was stolen, a freeze at all three bureaus is the strongest protection. You can add a fraud alert on top.

How often should you check your credit report?

At least once a year, at all three bureaus.
Three to six months before a big application, such as a mortgage or car loan, so there's time to fix errors first.
Right away after a data breach, a lost wallet, or a bill or collection call for something you don't recognize.
Every month or two while you're rebuilding your credit or have a dispute open.

If you'd rather be told when something changes, a credit monitoring service can alert you to new accounts and inquiries. Some are free.

Ready to act on what you find? The 30-Day Credit Plan starts with your reports and takes you through the fixes in order, and our guide to improving your credit score covers what helps most after that.

Sources

How do I get a free copy of my credit reports?, CFPB
What is a credit report?, CFPB
What is the difference between a credit report and a credit score?, CFPB
What is a credit freeze or security freeze on my credit report?, CFPB
Could I be turned down for a job because of something in my credit report?, CFPB
How do I dispute an error on my credit report?, CFPB
Which Public Records Can Appear on My Credit Report?, Experian
Fraud Alert vs. Credit Freeze: What's the Difference?, Experian
Credit checks and inquiries, myFICO
The sample account entry is made up for illustration.

Your Credit Report: How to Get It Free, Read It and Freeze It