Every journey begins with a single step, and whether you presently own a home and want to improve your financial health or are looking to buy a home, you should have as much information about your financial situation as possible.

An important step in your financial transformation is knowing your credit history.  There are several ways to go about this, you can write or call the individual credit reporting companies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) to get your personal information.  But this is the Information Age; shouldn’t there be an easier way than calling, writing, or even emailing a bunch of different organizations to get your personal credit history?

Yes, there should be, and there is:  Annual Credit Report.com.  From their About Us page:

AnnualCreditReport.com provides consumers with the secure means to request and obtain a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).

AnnualCreditReport.com offers consumers a fast and convenient way to request, view and print their credit reports in a secure Internet environment. We also provide options to request reports by telephone and by mail.

AnnualCreditReport.com is the only service authorized by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion for this purpose. The three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies have always encouraged consumers to regularly review their credit reports.

The big bonus here is that if you haven’t requested credit reports from the credit reporting companies in the previous twelve months, then the credit reporting service is free.  No one has to tell you that free is an excellent price.

One important caveat: there are several other sites out there that attempt to imitate AnnualCreditReport.com with the intention of acquiring personal information or trying to sell you unwanted or unnecessary products or services.  Don’t fall for that trap; deal with the one and only AnnualCreditReport.com website.