It really annoys me when I hear those commercials about free credit reports, only to find out it's only free if you sign up for a credit monitoring service. That's what led me to do the story about how to get your free credit report, really for FREE!

Still, some people are confused about how to go about it.  The federal government passed a law allowing you to get one free credit report each year from each of the big three credit reporting bureaus. The only official site where you can get that with no strings attached is www.annualcreditreport.com.

Once at that site, start by clicking on the state you live in... You don't want to start by clicking on the individual credit reporting sites listed on the home page, because that just takes you to each of their websites....

But after you enter your state at www.annualcreditreport.com and fill out some information, then you'll have to click on which of the agencies you want the credit report from at that time.

Keep in mind, getting a copy of your credit report is free, but it will cost you if you want a copy of your credit *score.*