How to Contact the Big Three Credit-Reporting Agencies

The three U.S. consumer credit-reporting agencies are TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. Credit-reporting agencies keep a record of consumer credit history. Creditors will update a debtors payment history once per month. You can contact the credit-reporting agencies using several methods. The method you use will depend on your reason for contacting that agency. Sometimes credit-reporting agencies are contacted to dispute items on a credit report. People also contact credit-reporting agencies to get copies of their credit report.

Instructions

1

Order a copy of your credit report. You can get a free copy of your credit report once per year from all three credit-reporting agencies. To order a copy from all three agencies at once, go to AnnualCreditReport.com.

2

Click on the button that says, Select your state. Select the button that says Request report. Fill in all of your personal information such as name, address, date of birth and Social Security number. Order your reports online, by mail or by phone.

3

Contact each individual credit-reporting agency for other requests. Go to the website of the agency (see Resources). Contact them to dispute items on your credit report, get information about credit monitoring, put a fraud alert on your report, order a security freeze or report identity theft. You may be able to perform some of these requests online, by mail, over the phone or by email. Each website will provide directions.