The Check Your Free Credit Report Campaign: 2/2, 6/6, 10/10 (February 2, June 6 and October 10) is an easy way to remember set aside five minutes on these dates to pull one credit report from one credit bureau.  All Americans can pull their reports at periodic intervals annually.  Federal law allows each of us to obtain one free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus each year – one report every four months is an equal distribution. University of Wisconsin-Extension has designed a fact sheet to provide an overview of why monitoring credit reports is important and what to do with a report when you get one.

AnnualCreditReport.com and its associated mailing address and phone number are the only truly FREE ways to obtain the free credit reports everybody is entitled to by law.  Other websites claim to offer free reports, scores or monitoring, but people who use these sites may incur significant one-time or ongoing fees. Unsolicited emails, pop-up ads or phone calls offering free scores or reports are not part of the official process.

The Federal Trade Commission has an excellent website on free credit reports that provides more background information.