What comes in a credit report?
A free credit report is just that. A report of all the credit you have opened, are currently using or closed in your life usually based around your SIN (Social Insurance Number).
Note: It won’t give you your credit SCORE, which is something you must pay for. It just gives you the history of your credit, as well as who inquired about your credit (hard or soft inquiries can hurt your credit score)
Who are the major players?
Experian, Trans Union and Equifax
How do I get one for free?
This site gives you the .pdf files to download and print, as well as where to address them.
How often can I get my credit report?
For free? Once a year under Canadian law.
You can also pay to have it every 6 months if you wish, but once a year should be all right unless you’re a nervous sort of person.
What do I do with a credit report?
Check for inaccuracies and make sure you update your information on it to it’s accurate.
If you also pay to find out your credit score, it can tell you how worthy you are in the eyes of lenders.
What I mean is that you don’t have much debt open, you’ve paid your bills on time, and are responsible.
A score of 700 or higher for example means they’ll treat you better and give you a lower interest rate.
So if you want to go shopping for a mortgage, a credit score that is clean and reliable will be very handy.
Why do I care about my credit report?
Even if you don’t really care about your report (like me because I’m about to run south and my credit history will be a blank new slate there), you should at least give it the once over every year like I do.
Why?
Well for one thing, it’s free if you don’t care about getting your score. You have to pay extra to get your score (Thanks Single Ma for pointing out the clarification!), but it may be worth it if you are looking into getting a loan or a line of credit.
Every year, people get their identities stolen. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to do it. I think Gail Vaz-Oxlade explains it best.
It’s a serious crime and difficult to clean especially if you have to prove that it wasn’t you which is not an easy task with all the criminals we have out there today.
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Fabulous Financials
on Jan 28th, 2009
@ 8:05 AM:
Why do I care about my credit score?
…
Well for one thing, it’s free if you don’t care about your score.
I know credit REPORTS are free but does Canada give out free credit SCORES too?
Rags2Riches
on Jan 28th, 2009
@ 9:16 AM:
This is a great post. I've always been curious about my credit score & if anybodys stolen my identity. It happened to my brother & he didn't find out till he was @ the bank trying to open something up & the manager was shocked by his bad score.
I am putting signing up for a free report on my 'to do' list.
Fabulously Broke
on Jan 28th, 2009
@ 11:08 AM:
Fabulous Financials: Nope. No free credit scores. You have to pay $15 to get the full report + score..
I don’t care about my score because I’m moving to the U.S. so everything resets. I just want to make sure my identity is not stolen.
Rags2Riches: Thanks! It’s a good idea to check on it once a year.
Jolie
on Jan 28th, 2009
@ 1:45 PM:
I’ve never seen my credit report, nor do I know my credit number. That may be something I do this year as part of my ’something new’.
Thanks for posting this.
C - The Asian Pear
on Jan 28th, 2009
@ 2:02 PM:
I recently had mine done by Equifax and it is quite painless. Just fill in the form, photocopy a few pieces of ID and fax it in. They send it to you in a week or two. Much faster than previously did (used to take 4-6 weeks!)
That being said, the one that Equifax gives is not as nicely printed as the sample FB gave. It gives only descriptions of all your accounts… When they were set up, balance oweing, if they were paid on time, if they were closed, etc.
You do get a rating for each account. It basically describes whether or not you’ve been late paying or it’s paid off or whatnot. There is no overall rating though as FB mentioned unless you pay for it. Though I think you get a pretty good idea of the status of your credit by the descriptions.
Eric
on Jan 28th, 2009
@ 2:36 PM:
I know of one place that does free credit scores, but I am not sure if they work for Canada. They work in the US for sure.
I wrote a how to on the site here: http://www.narrowbridgeadventures.com/2008/10/how-to-pull-your-credit-score-for-free.html