Her Credit Reports Are Free Every Week From All Three Bureaus, Not Once a Year. Checking Them Often Can Catch Fraud Sooner

Many people still think a free credit report comes once a year, which used to be the rule. Today, free credit reports from Equifax (NYSE:EFX | EFX Price Prediction), Experian, and TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) are available every week through AnnualCreditReport.com, and that weekly access is permanent. If she checks more often, an account she never opened can show up within days of being opened. Otherwise, it could sit there for months.

Weekly Free Credit Reports Became Permanent in 2023

A credit report is the record the bureaus keep on someone’s borrowing. It covers open accounts, balances, payment history, addresses, and who has pulled the file. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives consumers the right to one free report every 12 months from each of the three national bureaus. During the pandemic, the bureaus started offering free weekly reports in 2020. After two extensions, the Federal Trade Commission announced in October 2023 that Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion had made weekly access permanent.

One Official Site Covers All Three Bureaus

AnnualCreditReport.com is the official source. You can also request reports by phone at 1-877-322-8228 or by mail. Private companies also sell credit reports, usually as monthly subscriptions bundled with identity theft insurance, fraud alerts, or dark web monitoring. Look-alike sites with similar names can steer people toward those paid plans, so typing the official address directly avoids them. The free report includes the account details that lenders see, though it leaves out the credit score.

What to Look For on Each Report

• Accounts she didn’t open, such as a credit card or auto loan in her name.
• Hard inquiries she doesn’t recognize. A hard inquiry happens when a lender checks her file after someone applies for credit. One she doesn’t recognize can mean a stranger applied using her information.
• Addresses where she never lived.
• Old debts reported incorrectly, like a paid-off account still showing a balance or an on-time payment marked late.

Problems like these show up often in federal complaint data. In its annual report on 2025 complaints, dated March 2026, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said credit or consumer reporting drew more than 5.8 million complaints, or 88% of everything it received. Inaccurate or incomplete information was the top issue, and many consumers said the errors came from identity theft or fraud. Some found auto loans they didn’t recognize, taken out by people who faked their names.

How to Dispute an Error and How Long It Takes

The CFPB says to start with the bureau or bureaus showing the error. Your dispute should explain what’s wrong and why, include copies of supporting documents, and list each error with its account number. The CFPB also says to contact the company that supplied the information. The bureau has to investigate unless the dispute is frivolous.

Inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information must be removed or corrected, usually within 30 days, and sometimes 15 days longer if she sends more information during the investigation. A bureau can keep reporting information it has verified as accurate. When identity theft is behind the error, the CFPB points people to IdentityTheft.gov.

Why Retirees Have Extra Reason to Check

The FTC reports to Congress regularly on fraud against older consumers, most recently covering 2024-2025. A retiree who isn’t applying for new credit usually has a quiet file, so any new account or inquiry stands out. Speed matters because fraudulent card balances can pile up interest. The average credit card APR was 21.19% as of August 1, 2026.

A credit freeze blocks most new credit from being opened in her name. Any fraud that got in before the freeze stays on the file until someone reads the report. We’ve covered credit freezes and identity theft recovery in separate pieces. This one is only about checking reports often.

A Simple Routine Built Around Free Weekly Access

1. One approach cycles bureaus by pulling Equifax one week, Experian the next, and TransUnion after that, so you get a fresh report regularly.
2. Another approach pulls all three once a month and compares them side by side for accounts, inquiries, or addresses that don’t match.
3. A freeze can stay in place at all three bureaus and be lifted only when applying for credit. Our freeze guide walks through the steps.
4. You can dispute errors right away, in writing, with documents attached.

Weekly access means she can check as often as she likes without paying for monitoring. These routines also stay well within what the bureaus offer for free.

AnnualCreditReport.com Is the Official Source for Free Weekly Reports

AnnualCreditReport.com is the single site that covers all three bureaus. It’s the official home of the free weekly reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Typing it in directly avoids look-alike sites that charge for the same information.

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