Is there something like a truly free credit report?

At some point or another, each one of us has encountered an ad claiming: "Free credit report". 99% of time, there is nothing free at the other side of link. The FTC actually requires the big 3 credit agencies to provide a free credit report each year. But they have all managed to bury it so deep in their websites that its literally a treasure hunt to find the right website. If after having done all of that, you manage to get hold of your credit report, you would be then disappointed to know that your credit score is no where to be seen. Welcome to the world of subterfuge involving dishonest practices by companies and websites where they are all out to rip you off of your money to get something that they owe it you for free.

Lets start with a fun exercise. Someone told you, "Hey, you don't have to pay for your credit report. You can get it for free. The FTC mandates it". You go ahead excitedly and search for 'Free credit report'. Here's a screenshot of what you would see. Now tell me amongst all the results (sponsored & otherwise) which ones are actually free. Hint: There is only one

Here's the right answer:

AnnualCreditReport.com is the only website that is mandated by the FTC to provide you with direct links to the free credit reports that the big 3 credit agencies are required to give you each year. Stay away from everything else! Now once you get that, there are a few things to take care of. Again, keep in mind that the big 3 credit agencies are reluctantly giving you the free credit report that they are mandated to provide each year. 

You can start off by selecting any of the 3, but before you do that you have to go through an ID verification process where you will be asked a few questions about your background to make sure that you are who you claim to be. Now an ideal strategy would be pick one of the 3 credit reports at any point of time, say for e.g. we start with Transunion and then pick Experian after 4 months and Equifax after 8. Then by the time you wind up 12 months, you can go back and get your Transunion report again. This way you are able to monitor your credit history every 4 months (which is a bit too long of a gap, in my opinion, but there are other solutions to cover for that). 

Another thing to keep in mind when you go and open up your credit report is to IGNORE any and all links that offer you to reveal your current credit score. None of them are free and even worse, they will take you away from you Credit Report, with no way to get back. So the first step is to save the report. Now the best way to do it is do Ctrl+A (Cmd+A in case of a mac) and then copy and paste it in a word doc or just into you webmail and mail it to yourself. Once you've done that, you can then look through your report without fear of timing out. Now, how to read and understand your credit report is a whole different topic and we'll cover it next time.  

In the meanwhile, keep in mind, that your credit scores have nothing to do with your credit report. A company called Fair Isaac Corporation, better known as FICO, provides credit scores. And its kind of difficult to get a proper FICO score for free. In any case, what most of the credit agencies provide is their own version of the FICO score and you've to pay for it. Not worth it, in my opinion. Because you can get those same scores for free from 2 awesome websites: Creditkarma.com and Creditsesame.com. They both will provide you with a credit score - Transunion score and Experian score respectively. And they are well and truly free, no strings attached. They both operate on the Mint.com business model, where they'll try to sell you financial products like credit cards, savings accounts, IRAs, insurance and other such services based on your credit score (anonymized, of course). If you do don't need any of the other services you can steer clear of them and get your score for free literally everyday if you want.