No matter how many sites you see advertised, there is just one that provides you with your official free credit report from the three major credit bureaus and that is AnnualCreditReport.com. This is not to say that there are not other services out there that can provide you with a free credit report but for the most part the AnnualCreditReport.com website is the most trusted there is. Consumers must be very careful when they are attempting to visit this website as any fluctuation to what you type into the address bar can take you to imposter sites. An imposter site will ask for all of your personal information but not for the purposes you are intending. Many of them even steal your information for shady purposes. Others try to mimic the real website you are attempting to join only for you to find out that the services they offer are less than what you expected. In many cases you will not even be aware of the error you made until some strange and unknown charge shows up on your credit card or bank statement.
There are other ways to get your free credit report but since the law requires each consumer to have access to one report each and every year then there is no reason not to take advantage of this website annually. However, if for some reason you want to monitor your credit more often then you may browse the site to see if they offer any other extended credit monitoring services. If you have 24 hours a day 7 days a week monitoring then you can be made aware of anything that pops up on your credit report. At this point if something negative comes up you can seek the advice of credit professionals to help you sort it all out.