How to Request My Special Credit Report
Insurance companies especially love special credit reports! Life insurance, auto insurance, property insurance, rental insurance — all of these insurers use special credit reports.
Every day, we help regular people fight the credit reporting companies. Here are the 3 steps to requesting your special credit report: (1) identify the special credit report you want; (2) contact the special credit reporting agency to make a request; (3) verify that your report is actually delivered.
(1) IDENTIFY THE SPECIAL CREDIT REPORT YOU WANT
If you know which special credit reporting agency you need, you can skip this step. If you don’t know, you can search by category: Employment; Home Rental; Checking and Banking; Medical and Life Insurance; Property and Automobile Insurance; Utilities (Electric, Water, Cable, Internet); Retail; Credit; and Supplemental Credit.
We have also organized the most popularly-requested reports into bundles based on certain financial events — Applying for a New Job; Renting a Home; Buying a Home; Buying Car Insurance; Buying Life Insurance; and Opening a Banking or Investment Account.
Sometimes, companies have to get your permission to see and use your special credit report. But most times they do not. If you’ve already been denied or charged more because of a special credit report or credit score, you should’ve received an ‘adverse action notice’ that provides the name and contact information of the special credit reporting agency involved.
(2) CONTACT THE SPECIAL CREDIT REPORTING AGENCY TO MAKE A REQUEST
Federal law gives you the legal right to request a copy of your special credit reports and credit scores. But, the law came before the Internet, so you have to make your request the old fashioned way — by telephone or mail.
Search our catalog to identify the special credit reporting agency, or agencies, you want to contact. Then, contact these companies to request your special credit report.
The first way to request your report is to call. All special credit reporting agencies are required by law to have a toll-free telephone number to accept disclosure requests. In our catalog, we publish the telephone numbers of every special credit reporting agency.
Call the telephone number and follow the instructions to request your report. You may get a human or an automated system. (Some agencies ask that you leave your personal information in a voicemail box.) If it’s a human, you may have to be pleasantly persistent in requesting your report. Your experiences may vary — some agencies are great at accepting requests and some are not.
The second way to request your report is to mail a written request. With this method, you have to write your request on paper, make a photocopy of your government-issued identification, and mail it. In our catalog, we also publish the address of every special credit reporting agency for you to use.
We recommend sending your requests via U.S. Postal Mail, Certified Delivery in order to provide proof of delivery.
(3) VERIFY THAT YOUR REPORT IS ACTUALLY DELIVERED
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act law says that special credit reporting agencies must provide your credit report within 15 business days of your request.
Are you sitting down? Good. Here’s some news that may shock you — credit reporting agencies are not great at following the law. So, after you make the request, you still have to verify that your report is actually delivered.
The biggest complaint we hear is that credit reporting agencies demand excessive paperwork to fulfill disclosure requests. Whereas the law requires only that consumers provide “proper identification” with their requests, some credit reporting agencies make up fake identification requirements to thwart consumers. So, instead of providing your special credit report, you’ll receive a letter saying you need to send more documentation.
When this happens, you have to mail your request again with the documentation. Follow the instructions in the letter and provide whatever documentation the special credit reporting agency is seeking. Again, make copies of everything and send your request by U.S. Postal Mail, Certified Delivery. Track your request until you receive a response.
Next Steps
Once you’ve obtained your special credit report, you need to review it and dispute any inaccurate information. For additional resources, see our guides “How to Read My Special Credit Report” and “How to Dispute Inaccurate Information on My Special Credit Report”.