The United States government in June, 2004 passed a ruling that allows all citizens across the country to receive one free credit report a year from any or all of the three national credit reporting companies which include Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

As you know, your credit rating is the first thing that’s checked every time you want to make a substantial purchase requiring borrowed funds payable over long periods. Such instances include the purchase of a home, a car etc. Organizations don’t want to lend to someone who will not be able to return both their principal and interest.

Since it’s not feasible to actually employ enough man-power to investigate your credit history, they resort to a simpler and far more efficient way of getting that information – they pull up your credit report and take a look at a three digit figure which tells them all they need to know in terms of how trustworthy you are.

Now, there are two reasons why you should avail your free credit check:

- To ensure that your credit report is accurate and has not been compromised by misinformation and identity theft.

- To know where you stand so you can figure out ways to improve your scores in preparation for a situation when you might need to borrow.

Understanding the importance of this report to the individual, the government made the above mentioned reforms to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. But since there are only three companies that have to cater to the whole American population, it was decided that the organizations would follow a “rollout schedule” whereby they’d move from region to region, ultimately covering the whole country.

So, on the 1st of December, 2004, the Federal Trade Commission’s ruling was put into practice, starting with the western region. The Midwestern region, the Southern states and the Eastern states followed and by September 1, 2005, all individuals across the United States became eligible for free credit checks.

If you haven’t yet claimed your free credit check even once since then, it’s time to do so now. The process is simple and hassle free. All you need to do is go to Go Free Credit and request a copy of your credit report through Instant Deal. You’ll be prompted to enter your information and when you’ve done that, you’ll be asked to select any one of the three companies through which you want your credit report pulled up.

When you’ve selected a company, you’ll be routed to a page with instructions. Read them and then go the next page. From there on, you just follow the prompts and verify your information to pull up your free credit report which you can then print out and keep for record purposes.

Today there are many other websites that offer “free” credit score checks and while some actually do live up to their claims there are many that mislead you into believing the report is free and then charge you for it. Some others might require you to buy a particular service to qualify for free credit checks.