Having a good credit score matters. It affects whether or not you can get a mortgage or other loans, the interest rate you pay, whether a landlord accepts you as a tenant, and a whole host of other reasons. However, just checking your credit score doesn’t improve it. It’s also questionable whether the credit score you see matches the score that banks and other institutions see when they check on you. To improve your credit score, you need to maintain reasonable debt levels and pay your bills responsibly. Instead of monitoring your credit score, you can just get a free copy of your credit report from Equifax and TransUnion once per year to make sure it’s accurate. You can do this by calling them and going through their automated phone system to order a mailed copy of your report. If something is wrong, you can try to get it fixed. These free credit reports don’t give you your score, but they do list your creditors and a measure of how responsible you’ve been with payments for...

Equifax and TransUnion are required to provide Canadians with free copies of their credit reports once per year, but you only get these reports if you ask for them. Fortunately, asking for these reports by automated telephone system or online is fairly easy as long as you can get past the authentication questions. Here I describe my experience getting these reports. It’s not too difficult to search for “Equifax free credit report” or “TransUnion free credit report” and find ordering instructions, but don’t be distracted by their attempts to divert you to reports that aren’t free. Find the word “free” on the web pages. TransUnion Request TransUnion offers a way to order free credit reports online that seemed easy enough, but didn’t quite work for me. The problem was that one of the questions they used to authenticate me was based on errors in my file. They crossed up my home address with that of one of my family members. I know what TransUnion thinks my address was 13 years ...

It’s a good idea to check your credit report occasionally to make sure the information is accurate and that your identity hasn’t been stolen to borrow in your name. Online credit report services with fees are heavily advertised, but you can get your reports for free as well. Free reports are available to Canadians by calling both Equifax (800-465-7166) and TransUnion (800-663-9980 (outside Quebec) or 877-713-3393 (within Quebec)). You have to answer a series of questions to authenticate your identity, which involves a lot of punching in numbers on your keypad or saying the answers. I did this recently and it went quite smoothly. My experience with Equifax was better because it repeats your answers back to you before you confirm that they are right. TransUnion said “if you are satisfied with your entry, press 1” after each piece of information I entered, but didn’t tell me what I had entered. In one case I incorrectly entered a date with only two digits for the year instead o...

UPDATE: Just hours after I published this post my TransUnion credit report arrived by mail.  Apart from fairly harmless errors in my home residence history everything is in order.  Chalk one up for waiting and hoping it all works out! Just under 6 weeks ago I began the process of ordering my free credit reports from Equifax and TransUnion . Things went fairly smoothly with Equifax but TransUnion has been a tough nut to crack. I was able to order my Equifax report by phone , and I’ve since mailed in a request to have some errors be corrected. Equifax replied by mail with an update that corrected most of the errors. (They still list a comic phonetic spelling of the name of one of my past employers, but I don’t think this will cause me trouble.) TransUnion hasn’t replied at all. I tried to request my credit report by phone and was told I’d have to mail in a request. I mailed in a request carefully following the directions and haven’t heard back. They didn’t even mail ...

Last week I ordered my credit reports from Equifax and TransUnion . The Equifax report has arrived and it contains less than I would have guessed. In addition it has a few errors. The first thing after my name is wrong. It shows me living at a family member’s house. Based on the reporting date this seems to be incorrect information from when I opened a joint account with this family member. The bank managed to send me statements at the correct address, but somehow the information they sent to Equifax was messed up. My previous addresses are accurate, but the dates associated with them show no correlation with reality. The next category of information is current and previous employers. This information is fairly accurate except for the barely recognizable phonetic spelling of a previous employer’s name. Then it shows my birth date (with the month omitted for security) and Social Insurance Number (with the middle three digits omitted for security). Based on the reporting da...

A recent article about getting free credit reports gave enough practical information that it overcame my natural laziness. It turns out that you can order these credit reports with a call to an 800-number that responds with an automated system. You don’t even have to talk to a person. I was able to order my credit reports by keying in information that I had in my head and wallet: Social Insurance Number, credit card number, address, telephone number, date of birth, etc. I attempted to place the order with both Equifax (800-465-7166) and TransUnion (800-663-9980 (outside Quebec) or 877-713-3393 (within Quebec)). You have the option of paying to get your credit score at the same time. I decided to stick to just the free information. Ordering my credit report from Equifax went quite smoothly. You have a choice of keying in the information or saying it. I tried saying my date of birth at first, but it just couldn’t understand me. The hardest part was my postal code. There didn...