Welcome to the Tax Insights Podcast, where we break down complex tax topics into bite-sized how-tos. In this episode, Jeff Dvorachek explains how to get your free annual credit report from annualcreditreport.com. He shares tips on staggering requests from the three major agencies and highlights the importance of monitoring your credit for errors and identity theft. Let’s dive in!
Host: Today we’re talking about credit reports, and I know that every year you can get one free credit report. Is that still accurate?
Jeff: It is still correct. Yeah, and because with so much of our information online these days, it’s really hard to combat identity theft or having people open up credit lines in your name without you knowing about it. So, from my personal point of view, it’s essential that you really know what’s on your credit report.
Host: Right. So, question for you, though, Jeff, because from what I believe, every time you pull a credit report, your credit goes down. Correct?
Jeff: Yeah, and that I don’t know if I can necessarily answer. But I think in this case, it probably won’t. I think the reason why your credit score goes down is if other people pull your report. Right. And so that means that you’re probably looking to get some more loans or credit for something, which may decrease your score. But I think doing it through this particular website that we’ll talk about in a second, I don’t believe that decreases the score at all.
Host: Okay. So, what is that website for those that want their free credit report?
Jeff: Now, there’s a ton of them out there, but you want to go to annualcreditreport.com. This is the only website that’s authorized by federal law, and it’s 100% free to get your credit report. And you can get your credit report from all three agencies: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian.
Host: Okay. So again, that website, Jeff, it’s annualcreditreport.com. One word. And what you can do is from that website, you can get a credit report every year for free.
Jeff: Exactly. What I recommend is, you know, since there are the three sources we just talked about, you could get a credit report from TransUnion today, from Equifax six months from now, and then Experian nine months from now. That will allow you to get a new one every single year without having to request all three at the same time.
Host: That’s a very good way of always staying on top of your credit and making sure that nothing is on there that you’re not aware of because, again, that is going to impact you when you need to go take out a loan or get more credit somewhere.
Jeff: That’s right. And this is your credit report. So, it’s not going to show your credit score or anything like that. You know, if you want to do that, a lot of times your credit card or other services will do that for you, or you can go to this website and pay an additional fee. But I would suggest just using the free portion of this website and just getting that credit report each year.
Host: It’s good information. In almost everywhere you look, you need to stay on top of this stuff, and this is one way you can do it, absolutely free.
Jeff: It is. And let’s say you find something that isn’t correct on there. It also gives you a way to contact those agencies to either initiate a dispute or put a credit freeze on your whole account so nobody can apply for credit under your name.
Host: Jeff, great information. Listeners, connect with Jeff and the team at Hawkins Ash here in Manitowoc. How do they do that, sir? What’s the best way of reaching out to you guys?
Jeff: I would go to HawkinsAsh.CPA in that CPA-HQ section. Now, people may not know, but we have a team of over 180 professionals spread across 10 offices in two states that specialize in accounting, tax, audit, valuations, and everything else. So, come visit us at our website.
