How to Get Your Free Credit Report in Canada — A Buyer’s and Renter’s Guide
Checking your own report is a soft pull that never costs you points — but your report and your score aren’t the same thing
How do I get my credit report for free in Canada, and will checking it lower my score?
In Canada you have a legal right to request your own credit report — called a “consumer disclosure” — for free from both national credit bureaus, Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada, with no fee and no credit card required. According to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC, 2025), checking your own report counts as a soft inquiry that does not affect your credit score. You can request it online, by mail, or by phone.
Source: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) / Canada.ca (2025)
When you apply for a mortgage or hand a landlord a rental application, the first thing they do is pull your credit. The problem: most people have never actually looked at their own report — and only discover an error on it after they’ve been declined or quoted a higher rate. The good news is that in Canada, checking your own credit is completely free and won’t cost you a single point. The catch is that the free “score” you see in a banking app isn’t necessarily the same number a lender pulls. Here’s how the two bureaus work, how to request your report the right way, the difference between a report and a score, and how far ahead of an application you should check.
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Canada has just two credit bureaus: Equifax and TransUnion
The key point: their data isn’t identical. A given creditor may report to only one of them. So the score you see at Equifax can differ by dozens of points from what a lender pulls at TransUnion — which is exactly why FCAC suggests checking both.
Your legal right: a free "consumer disclosure"
How to request it:
- Online: TransUnion offers a free online consumer disclosure updated monthly; Equifax also offers free online access to your credit file and score
- By mail: download and complete the bureau’s request form and mail it with ID
- By phone: call the bureau and have the report mailed to you
Note: the free disclosure requires no subscription, no trial, and no credit card number. Anything asking you to enter a card for a “free trial” is a paid monitoring product — not your legal right.
ℹ️“Free trial — just enter a credit card” is NOT your legal free entitlement. The real free consumer disclosure requires no card number. If a page asks you to attach a card before showing your report, that’s a paid monitoring product, not the free report you’re entitled to by law.
Checking yourself is a soft pull — it never lowers your score
What temporarily dings your score is a hard inquiry: generated when a creditor pulls your file because you applied for a new card, loan, or mortgage. Several hard pulls in a short window can make you look like you’re scrambling for credit. So relax — checking yourself often before you buy is risk-free.
Your credit REPORT and your credit SCORE are different things
- The report is the full detail — every account, balances owed, whether you paid on time, any late payments, collections or bankruptcies, and who has pulled you
- The score compresses all of that into one number from 300 to 900 (FCAC, 2025)
The part that trips people up: the free score you see in a banking app (RBC, Scotiabank, CIBC) or through a service like Borrowell may not match the score a lender actually pulls. Different models, different bureaus, and different dates produce different numbers. Free scores are great for tracking the trend — just don’t treat one as the final figure your lender will use.
⚠️Don’t assume the free score in your banking app is the score your lender will use. They may rely on a different model and a different bureau, so the number pulled at application time can be lower. Use the free score to watch the trend, and check both bureaus before you formally apply.
300 to 900: what lenders and landlords are actually looking for
- Around 660–670+: generally treated as the start of “good”
- 680+: a common bar many lenders look for on conventional (uninsured) mortgages, and where more competitive rates open up
- ~600: a frequently cited floor for CMHC-insured mortgages, though the rate may be higher
- 740+: usually considered very strong
Landlords weigh it differently: they care more about whether the report shows late payments, collections, or prior tenancy problems than about the number alone. A clean, paid-on-time report often persuades more than a high score by itself.
How to read it — and how to fix errors
- Are all the accounts yours? Anything you don’t recognize could signal identity theft
- Are balances, limits, and payment statuses accurate?
- Any old late marks that should have aged off, or a paid-off debt still showing as owing?
- In the hard-inquiry list, are there any pulls you didn’t authorize?
If you find an error, file a “dispute” directly with that bureau — it’s free. The bureau is obligated to investigate and correct it within a reasonable time. Check Equifax and TransUnion separately, since an error may appear on only one of them.
💡 The practical timing for buyers and renters: don’t make your mortgage or rental application the first time you ever look at your own credit. Ideally, check yourself 3–6 months ahead so you have time to dispute errors, clear small balances, and lower your credit-card utilization. FCAC (2025) suggests a free monitoring rhythm: pull one bureau, then pull the other about six months later — so you’re watching both across the year without paying for a subscription.
A final word for buyers and renters
Your credit is the business card that arrives ahead of you when you submit a mortgage or rental application. It’s free, it’s a soft pull, and you can check it anytime — there’s no reason not to look before you apply. You’re checking more than the number; you’re confirming the report holds no error that could trip you up at the worst possible moment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is checking my own credit report in Canada really free?
Yes. Under provincial privacy laws and FCAC (2025), you have a legal right to request your full credit report — a “consumer disclosure” — for free from both Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada, online, by mail, or by phone. No fee and no credit card are required. Anything that asks for a card for a “free trial” is a third-party paid monitoring service, which is separate from this legal right.
Will checking my own credit lower my credit score?
No. Checking your own report is a “soft inquiry” with zero impact on your score, no matter how often you do it. What can temporarily affect your score is a “hard inquiry” — a pull triggered by a creditor when you apply for new credit. So feel free to check yourself as often as you like before buying or renting.
Is the free score I see the same one a lender uses for a mortgage?
Not necessarily. The score you see for free in a banking app or through a service like Borrowell may come from a different bureau, a different scoring model, or a different date than what a lender actually pulls, so the numbers can differ. Use free scores to track the trend, but don’t treat one as the exact figure a lender will use. Before you apply, it’s wise to check both Equifax and TransUnion.
How far ahead of buying or renting should I check my credit?
Aim to check 3–6 months ahead so you have time to fix things — disputing errors, clearing small balances, and lowering credit-card utilization all take time to show up in your score. FCAC (2025) also suggests a free monitoring approach: pull one bureau, then the other about six months later, so you watch both across the year without paying for a subscription.
Arthur Zhao
Real Estate Broker · FRI · ABR · SRS · PSA · MCNE · E-PRO · GUILD Elite
VP & Branch Manager, Bay Street Group Inc.
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