Why Haven't You Got Your Free Credit Report Yet?

I mentioned before that Dr. Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny is a foundational text for Stupid Sexy Privacy.

And one of the points Dr. Snyder makes is to limit the number of ways a tyrant can get their hooks into you.

So, although you've probably heard this advice before — and I'm pretty sure a Large Language Model can write this post with its eyes closed — I'm going to recommend you get a free credit report. All you need to do is visit AnnualCreditReport.com

You can also call (877) 322-8228 or, using the method I suggest you use, download this form right here and mail it to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

On that form, make sure to select the options on the bottom to get a credit report from all three agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion).

You Want Me To Use The Postal Service Again?

It's better to put this in the mail for a few reasons:

1. It supports the United States Postal Service, and like I mentioned, throughout this project, I'm going to suggest you pick one institution in our country to uphold. So mine is the USPS. Whenever possible, we're going to use them.
2. Like with the Privacy Notebook (which we'll talk about later), you take the stuff you do offline more seriously than the stuff you do online. So taking a few minutes to print this form, and take it to the post office, and then to examine the documentation you get back in the mail, means you're more likely to look at it more closely than you would a .pdf. Or if it's on your laptop where you can be distracted by a dozen other things. You need to look over your credit reports very carefully for reasons we'll discuss later.
3. Let's say you're doing the whole MAXIMUM PRIVACY!!! thing. The less you do online, the better. You can have this information sent to a personal mail box, for example, instead of your actual address. These Credit Reports will also be the first chance you get to see if that PMB has been listed anywhere.

Privacy Tip: Get That Credit Report, Baby!

The bad news is, aside from a few exceptions, you can only do this once a year.

So when you get your information mailed to you, take out that paper calendar I was telling you about using, and mark the date.

When you buy your next paper calendar, for the following year, circle that exact date and then send in this form again.

You're going to want to do this every year.

Now, we're going to get into what to do with these Credit Reports a bit later in the series.

Right now, I just want you to actually take the first step and get your first one.

Before we finish up, let's talk about what the exceptions are. Because there are some cases where you don't have to wait a whole year to get this information.

For example, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)— another institution, like the Post Office, deserving of your support — You can get an additional free credit report if:

"You received a notice that you were denied credit, insurance, or employment or experienced another “adverse action” based on a credit report. In this case, you have a right to a free report from the credit reporting company identified in the notice. To get the free report you must request it within 60 days after you receive the notice. Other types of “adverse action” notices you might receive include notice of an unfavorable change in the terms or amount of your credit or insurance coverage, or unfavorable changes in the terms of your employment or of a license or other government benefit."

Honestly, I was going to link to the CFPB website, but we can't trust that stuff linked to by the federal government is going to be there tomorrow.

So, according to CFPB, the other exceptions are

• "You believe your file is inaccurate due to fraud.
• You have requested a credit report from a nationwide credit reporting company in connection with placing of an initial fraud alert on your credit file (you may request two free copies for an extended fraud alert).
• You are unemployed and intend to apply for employment within 60 days from the date of your request.
• You are a recipient of public welfare assistance.
• Your state law provides for a free credit report."

-BJ