Get A Free Weekly Credit Report From Equifax, Experian & TransUnion (Now Permanent)

Update 9/20/23: This has now been announced as a permanent change.

Update 9/24/22: Extended through the end of 2023.

Update 4/22/22: Extended through the end of 2022.

Update: These will be available through April 2022

Annualcreditreport.com is website that was set up to give consumers access to their credit reports once annually for free under fair credit reporting act  (FACTA was the specific amendment). Due to COVID-19 it’s now possible to get a copy of your credit report for free weekly until April 2021. The fact that Equifax, Experian and TransUnion can do this in the first place indicates this should be standard rather than a special exemption due to COVID-19. Keep in mind that if you dispute an item listed they have 45 days to respond, instead of the standard 30 days when a report was obtained through annualcreditreport.

Hat tip to reader Matt I
    William Charles
  • On September 20, 2023, 20:27

View Comments (107)

  • It is just a database of information with each entity. There should be no limitation of how often you can view that information. You should just be able to log in and see the information they have collected on you. The idea that you can only access it weekly is nonsensical, even though it is better than yearly.

  • This is always how it should have been since the beginning. I'm glad that there are now laws to stop them from scamming people. Thanks for posting!

  • I had no idea they had made this free weekly. I was wondering why I was able to access these reports more than once a year.

  • Something interesting I noticed... my P1 & P2 Transunion report now shows Chexsystems summary information, at least when pulled from AnnualCreditReport.com.

    I really don't appreciate that TU and Chex are in cahoots, but I have a feeling the instigator is CreditKarma.

    Example of the info contained:

    Checking Account Inquiries in the Last Month: 0
    Checking Account Inquiries in the Last 2 Months: 2
    Checking Account Inquiries in the Last 3 Months: 3
    Checking Account Inquiries in the Last 6 Months: 11
    Checking Account Inquiries in the Last Year: 20
    Checking Account Inquiries in the Last 2 Years: 37
    DDA Inquiries in the Last 3 Years: 63
    Total Days Since First Checking Account Inquiry: 1074
    Days Since Most Recent DDA Inquiry: 41

    A great little summary for banks to scrutinize. (Cross-posting to Chex post.)

    Not sure if getting rid of my CreditKarma account will stop this sharing or not.

    • I thought I'd stop by and report my experience with this, as I had seen this post by Gadget a few weeks ago, and it led me to get my Transunion report (and the other 2 agencies' reports) from Annualcreditreport.com.

      It also led me to sign up (briefly - for 2 hours) for Credit Karma.

      I did so because I actually *wanted* to see my Chex information (such as number of checking account inquiries) in those various places, so I was hopeful that I would see the same kind of info as Gadget did in April 2023.

      However, my Transunion report from Annualcreditreport.com didn't have anything about my checking inquiries. My Credit Karma account didn't have anything about my checking inquiries.

      ...But even my Chex report has nothing about my checking inquiries, so maybe that's why Transunion and Credit Karma didn't have anything!

      Background:
      I was hopeful to see my checking account inquiries somewhere, since Chex apparently no longer has any information about me -- I think I'm code 9999 or something, which is not a "bad" score, it's not a good score: it's a non-score.
      The weird thing is, I used to have a normal Chex report; I've had various bank accounts for almost 40 years.
      I have been applying for bank bonus offers in 2022 and 2023 - I have been able to open some accounts at different banks - yet Chex still, in September 2023, does not have any info on me, neither good nor bad.
      I don't have a freeze at Chex, or anywhere else like EWS (and I never have had a freeze anywhere).
      I even bought a set of unneeded paper checks for a checking account this summer because I read that ordering a new set of paper checks can cause an entry on the Chex report, but no, that didn't work for me.
      I've been turned down by several banks in 2023 specifically due to my having no information at all on my Chex report, so I'd like to get this solved.
      There is no way to contact Chex directly to ask what is going on.
      My Chex report of 10 years ago did have several of my bank accounts on it, and some of those accounts are still open now and in good standing, so it's weird. And frustrating.

      If anyone has any advice about how to get my Chex report to contain information about me, please let me know.
      Should I ask the banks where I'm a checking customer if they would manually report my account with them to Chex?

      Also, I applied for my full, "comprehensive" EWS report a few weeks ago and was fearing the worst (some people said that theirs was a hundred pages long and contained actual dollar amounts of their daily balances and ACH transfers), but my EWS report was 1 page long and had 2 closed bank accounts (closed 9 years ago), 1 open bank account with Fidelity that was opened 10 months ago, and nothing else from my 40 years of banking history. It didn't have any of my dollar amount balances or ACH transfers. Which was a good thing - I don't want the dollar amounts to be on any report, but I don't understand why my EWS report is so different from what other people are reporting.

      And, my comprehensive report didn't have any sort of EWS "score" for me like other people talk about having -- how do I get my EWS score?

      • You need to contact Chexsystems and ask why your report is blank. If you somehow opted out, then you need to ask to opt back in. @guest_1699158 provided the phone number.

        Ordering a box of paper checks does NOT necessarily report it to Chex. I probably have at least 10 banks that sent me checks in the last year. Only one bank/CU chose to report that on Chex.

        I would not ask a current bank to report your account to Chex. First, they are going to think you're taking crazy pills. Most people think of Chex as only holding negative information, so it's about like asking a cop to give you a speeding ticket. Unlike EWS, open accounts/account status/transactions are not reported to Chex. It's primarily just negative information when not maintaining an account properly, or new account inquiries. Maintaining old accounts is not going to show up. And, your particular bank may not even use Chex.

        I have seen some people mention an EWS Score. My understanding is it's not an official thing, but something each bank can create to score you as a customer. Banks like PNC might guage recent account openings as a detriment and use that to deny the application, but they don't tell you your score. If that's the case, keeping your oldest EWS accounts open might help, just like with a credit report and your oldest credit card. But, it's all just a guessing game because banks are not required to release how they make their decisions, just the report they looked at to help them decide.

        • Thank you for your reply, @guest_961913 .

          I didn't opt out at Chex, and I don't have any type of credit report that is frozen.

          The people who get this weird Chex score like I have - and "no information found" listed on their report -- usually have spotless banking histories and a low-risk profile, but paradoxically they are being turned down for new bank accounts because Chex does not have anything remarkable to report about them.

          In the last hour, I have been trying to link my earlier DoC posts from January 2023 where I described exactly what happened and what my 2023 Chex reports have said, as well as what I found in several hours' worth of online research about this unusual and perplexing Chex issue, but my posts here this afternoon keep being moderated, and they appear not to have been accepted for this thread (not sure why; I'm not saying anything controversial!)

          I won't write more, since this post may be put in moderation too, but I wanted to at least try to thank you for your response this afternoon.

          • @guest_961913 Since that comment was allowed to stay up, I will try to summarize what the issue is with having the sort of Chex report and score that I have.
            The score is four nines in a row (I'm not writing it numerically in case that sets off the moderation alarm).
            The Chex report says: quote - there is insufficient information in ChexSystems files to create a consumer score - endquote.
            Reputable sources online have said that having this on your Chex report usually means that you've been a good and steady banking customer, so there isn't anything bad in your history to report.
            Unfortunately, banks these days who run your Chex report to see if they will accept your application to open an account with them usually err on the side of assuming that you do not have any banking history at all, and they do not give you an alternative way to show that you have a good banking history (they don't look at any of your other credit reports, they don't ask you what your other bank accounts are).
            The other sources online have said that the only way a customer who has that type of no-information Chex score can fix the problem is to have one of their current banks report them for something -- anything -- to Chex, and it is often recommended to try ordering a new set of checks.
            I tried that by getting a new set of checks for one of my mainstream bank checking accounts this summer, but they didn't report it to Chex, even though they used to report my account to Chex years ago.
            I do not know of any other way to get any of my (approximately eight) presently-held bank accounts reported to Chex, and this is preventing me from being accepted for most of the bank bonuses that have come along in 2023, which is very frustrating.
            I know what you mean by saying that my current banks would think I was crazy for asking them to report my account to Chex, but what else can I do? Other than overdraw an account and go on the run! :-)

          • If you include more than one hyperlink, it automatically goes to SPAM or Moderation (which aren't the same thing).

            If you lack Chex history, I would get crackin'... Apply for the most Chex-inquiry-sensitive bank/CU you can find where people are saying stay away. If that doesn't work, I'd apply for something local in person that pulls Chex.

            I will wait to see what else you said, which might take up to two days to get approved.

          • @guest_961913
            I had plenty of Chex history when I last got my Chex report about 10 or 12 years ago. I've had a particular bank account for 40 years and they had that account on it (but it's not there now). I was active on the Fatwallet site "back in the day" (in fact, some of the original links to external DPs on the post on this site about what personal ACHs work as DDs are to my Fatwallet posts about my first forays into bank bonuses, although obviously FW is no longer online except for the WaybackMachine), and for couple of years at that time I did a lot of bank bonuses, and several of those accounts were on my Chex report when I got it 10 or 12 years ago.

            When I was turned down for two bank bonuses in January 2023 for the reason of "declined due to Chex report", I got my Chex report, and was surprised to see that they said they had no information about me AT ALL.
            Then I read that Chex only keeps information on the report for 7 years (as I recall).

            Your solution of applying for Chex-sensitive bank accounts is what I *have* done this year, and I've been declined by these banks "due to Chex report". They won't go into further detail about why they declined me - they refer me to my Chex report.
            The reason that your solution won't work is that it seems that none of these banks have reported *to* Chex that I have applied and that they have declined me: I got my Chex report a couple of weeks ago and there is no history on my Chex report of any of those unsuccessful bank applications from 2023.

            It's pretty weird! So frustrating. In reality, I have a good history of being a careful and conservative customer, yet I can't get most bank bonuses these days because I'm erroneously seen as suspicious because Chex makes it seem that I do not have any banking history at all.
            (This is not unheard of, because I have seen a few reports on three or four other websites where other people have said this is happening to them.)

            I will report back here to this sub-thread if I am able to get any clarification or help from Chex on the phone, or if I am able to find a solution.

          • I would apply for something local that pulls Chex. Some of these online banks are denying for identity issues, before even pulling Chex. In-person opening bypasses that issue.

            I would still contact Chex, too, again, and discuss the issue. Unless you have a freeze, you should be getting new inquiries.

            Chex inquires only last 3 years. An acct opened 10+ years ago isn't going to show.

            The other option is to add an additional deposit account at your current bank. However, as an existing customer, not all banks report that to Chex.

            I have no more advice to give. You seem to be a special case.

      • "There is no way to contact Chex directly to ask what is going on."

        Did you already try the telephone number on the Contact Us page: 800.428.9623?

        "Consumer Relations is available to answer general questions or provide assistance with disputes, disclosures, and other requests. Representatives are available to assist during normal business hours 8:00am - 7:00pm Central Time, Monday through Friday."

        https://www.chexsystems.com/contactus

        @guest_1698905

        • About an hour ago, I tried to link here the post I left on this DoC site on January 26 of this year where I described some of the internet research I had done on the issue of having a Chex score of "9999", but that post was put in moderation, and now I don't see it in this thread.
          Suffice it to say, I did look into this Chex "no information found" issue for several hours back in January, including searching the creditboards site, although I did not post a question on creditboards at that time. (I think that I had ascertained that the relevant area of the creditboards site for a question of this nature didn't have very many recent posts or visitors, but my memory on that is fuzzy now.)
          On a handful of other sites, I found a few mentions of other people having this issue, so I described that information in my Jan 26 DoC post (that I tried to link to an hour ago).
          Anyway, the nitty-gritty isn't relevant to anyone but the few people who are flummoxed by this problem with Chex. This issue has prevented me from opening several bank accounts this year, and there seems to be no way for me to fix it.
          Here is a quote I found in January from a different source: "…the 9999 code means that not enough information has been found about your banking history to create a score. …. ChexSystems is looking for bad data. Only for bad data! If you are a good, reliable customer who has never had any problems with banks, there is a good chance that you won’t have any entries at all. Is it something good and a reason to be proud of? Well, yes! But banks may treat it a little bit differently. The idea is simple. Not every customer is reported to ChexSystems. If the banker receives the code 9999, they may come across as confused. The reason is that it may be difficult to decide whether you’re just a novice bank customer (this is also considered a risk to a financial institution), or you are literally perfect (slight risk)."
          Sadly, being a "literally perfect (slight risk)" customer has meant that I am being turned down in 2023 for accounts at most banks with whom I was not a previous customer.

          • "Sadly, being a “literally perfect (slight risk)” customer has meant that I am being turned down in 2023 for accounts at most banks with whom I was not a previous customer."

            No, a new file makes you high risk because creating a new file is exactly what a fraudster would do. If you were born in (say) 1990 and your credit file was new in 2022, that makes you suspect because your file is created the first time you open an account with anyone who reports to and/or pulls Chex.

            The quote you found in January is misleading because it's incomplete. Entries that count include: age of file, date of birth, address(es) etc.

            Your "new" file is not old enough to generate a score without more data. You need to recover the old one. See my answer to your previous post.

          • They have a Chex forum - you really should sign up and check it out.

            The reason CB limits access for nonmembers is to prevent disinformation and spamming by credit reporting agencies, "credit repair" scammers etc.

            Your problem sounds like a so-called "split file". IOW, ChexSystems may have created a 2nd (new) file for you and that's what gets pulled. But your history is in the old file.

            The new file does not contain enough history to generate a score, hence the "9999".

            The key is to merge the 2 files. No CSR will have a clue how to fix it but there are experts on CB.

          • "They have a Chex forum – you really should sign up and check it out."
            Link, please, @guest_1700354? Thanks!

    • My TU shows those too, and I got rid of CreditKarma > 2 years ago (there are no softs from CreditKarma remaining on my TU reports).

      The silver lining is this will be useful to us.

      • Other than bragging rights, it's only marginally useful. Yeah, some people put their Chex stats on their comments when they are denied, which is great. But how many people are accurately reporting their numbers is the question, as not all banks pull EWS, but some pull both, and some pull neither. And, if you are getting your numbers from TU, the Chex data is only updated once a month. So, depending on when you look at your TU report, you could be quoting numbers that are nearly two months old.

        I can see banks using it more as a detriment than a positive. What person needs 20+ new deposit accounts in a year? Has this person's identity been stolen?

        Having Chex online access, I can see pulls within minutes after they occur. Apparently, some people can't get theirs to work, so yes, in that case, this could be handy.

        • I would love to have online Chex access but they will only provide my reports by USPS because they are "unable confirm my identity".

          They make ordering them as difficult as possible and they are in no rush to send them out. The upside is, it costs them money to do this.

          I can get my TU report instantly online showing Chex inquiries as of the 5th of each month. It's easy to estimate the number of new ones over the last 1-4 weeks. I don't put the numbers in my spreadsheet until I confirm them - I'm not going to open another account with the same bank within a month anyway!

          • Sounds like a good system. That's too bad Chex makes it so difficult for some people.

        • "What person needs 20+ new deposit accounts in a year?"
          😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁🤑

      • How do you get rid of creditkarma? Thanks!

        And for the weekly report from the 3 bureaus, do we sign up with each one to get the weekly report?

        Thank you!

      • Credit Karma itself does not show that info. As I said, you will see it if you pull your TU report from Annualcreditreport. @guest_1698780

        On my Chex report, Transunion, on behalf of Credit Karma, is (soft) pulling my Chex monthly.

        On my Chex...

        Inquiries Viewed Only by You
        Inquirer :
        TRANSUNION LLC 555 W ADAMS ST CHICAGO IL 60661
        Phone Number :
        800.916.8800
        On Behalf Of :
        CREDIT KARMA 1100 BROADWAY SUITE 1800 OAKLAND CA 94607

        They are pulling it on the 5th of each month.

        It shows up when you pull your FULL Transunion report. Not on the Credit Karma report.

          • Oops, I made an error in the answer to your question. Corrected info below...

            If other people aren't seeing it on the FULL Transunion report, then I guess I am just lucky like that.

          • I see "Chex Systems Inc." listed on my Transunion report exactly in the same manner as you do. @guest_1698790

          • Thanks for confirming. Yeah, but you don't see it if you view your TU report from Credit Karma.

  • This is a nice feature that Annual Credit Report is providing, but in case some of your readers don't know, it is been possible to obtain reliable frequent no-cost pulls of your credit reports for several years now -- you just need to use free third-party tools. Way back in the day (8+ years ago maybe?) consumers were limited to at most one free pull per credit bureau, but that hasn't been the case for a long time.

    As far as credit SCORES (which are not the same as credit reports) it is also easy to get free FICO scores (Vantage scores are even easier to get, though they are less valuable since far fewer creditors use them to make CC and loan issuing decisions, though landlords seem to use them a bit more). To get free FICO scores you do not need to have a credit card, though many credit cards also provide them.

    One nice feature of the ACR site is that their reports show every payment and statement balance for the last 24 months (if that info is being reported by the creditor -- not all creditors report that historical payment info). There was talk a few years ago about FICO 10 and later models using that historical data (it helps creditors identify whether you pay your statement balances in full each time, which is associated with lower risk) but since not all creditors report the history of your payments it's hard to see how the algorithms could do that.

    Anyway, bottom line is that this ACR offer is nice but folks should have already been pulling their reports and FICO scores fairly often. Consumers have been able to do that well before the pandemic and they will be able to do that well after this special offer from ACR ends.

    • Who gives out a free Equifax FICO? I know Experian gives you one directly, and Discover gives you TransUnion.

      • Navy Federal gives me a monthly FICO score based on Equifax Score 9 (range 300-850). I have a credit card and savings account with them.

      • Yep, you are right, EQ is the biggest challenge to get free. Any Citi card will give you a free EQ FICO 8 BankCard score. That can be used to monitor how your EQ report is doing, as long as it is being compared against itself (over time) -- the model is a bit different from the FICO 8 Classic, which is what you get with the free services provided by Experian and TransUnion. Another option is to sign up for the 7-day trial for Credit Check Total. That will give you an integrated 3-bureau report as well as a FICO 8 Classic from each bureau. Then once you have what you need you can cancel the CCT trial. The CCT trial can be churned. An interesting choice is to go the CCT route, then pull your Vantage scores and Citi FICO 8 BankCard a few minutes later. That will give you an idea of how the different models score with the same data (e.g. EQ Fico 8 Classic vs. EQ FICO 8 BankCard vs. EQ Vantage).

        There is a bank that gives you a free EQ FICO 8 Classic for having a savings or checking account with them, but I can't remember its name.

  • For about the past two years or so, haven't been able to pull Equifax using the Annual Credit Report site. Tonight it worked. I figured they were just forcing us to use the Myequifax website, but you're limited to 6 pulls per year on there. Someone I saw speculated that error was happening to EVERYONE that was impacted by the EQ Breach.

    But tonight, Experian gave a strange error for P1, but not for P2.

    We're sorry
    A condition exists that prevents Experian from being able to accept your request at this time.

    • Got the same error. Managed to get around by switching from Chrome to Firefox and using different email, not sure which one helped.

  • "This benefit will continue to help consumers across the country manage their financial health during the ongoing hardship and economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19."

    LMAO, let's see how much longer they are going to blame COVID-19 for the ongoing economic damage being done to this country and not idiotic politicians

  • They collect our data for free, sold those data for money and now do us a favor by temporarily waving the fee for issuing us a part of our data.

    • Stop complaining. You and everyone on this site benefits from their data collection. Churning is made possible because the CB's have data that distinguishes bad borrowers from good borrowers, which allows banks to grant favorable terms and promotions to those who are good borrowers, while excluding bad borrowers

      • Much better than the alternative, bread lines and gulags. And as greenspan pointed out the credit system in the US is heavily regulated by the government. Look at the social score system in China if you want to see what the non-capitalist side offers.

        • I like the way people just think the alternative is Cuba/china like communism, forgetting that EU/Scandinavian countries are also capitalist, having better consumer protection and better standard if living in general. I instantly get to know where they get their "news" from.

          • Highly doubt I'd have a higher standard of living in the EU or Scandinavia lol. Maybe if you're very low income.

          • "Highly doubt I’d have a higher standard of living in the North lol"

            -slaveowners in the Antebellum South

      • I don't really care about your underlying beliefs on the issue, but credit bureaus have to follow a slew of regulations and "voluntarily" follow several more under threat of future legislation, so I wouldn't really call this particular issue "unfettered"

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