Obtaining your free credit report in Canada

Each Canadian is entitled to receiving his or her credit report for free once a year. (Lots of people don’t know that, and the credit reporting companies, for obvious reasons, do not advertise the fact: they’d rather sell you a service for nice $$ per year doing essentially the same thing.)

So here’s how you can obtain the report for free:

By coming in person, in Toronto (by the way, you will not find this information on Equifax’s website)

Go to Equifax office located at 5700 Yonge (@Hendon, one block north of Finch; you can also get there directly from the Finch subway station). This branch used to be at 110 Sheppard East but moved here. The new office is located at concourse level behind the elevators, and there is no sign except for a small printed one.

Make sure you have the following with you:

all addresses that you lived at for the last 5 years
2 pieces of ID(*) including one with your current(**) address
something interesting to read, as the line may be quite long.

——
(*) These have to be official pieces of ID, including one with a photo. E.g. a plastic driver’s license or a passport or a major credit card and a bank statement. Pay stubs and OHIP cards do not qualify.
(**) I saw a woman turned back because she had moved recently (having indicated the fact on her application) and all her documents still showed the old address. She produced a pay stub with the new address, but it would not do.

You get the printed report immediately. Please note that you cannot obtain your credit score that way; with Equifax, it can be only done online for $$.

By mail from anywhere in Canada

You will find the instructions here in small print on the right side of the screen under “Related resources”.

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