annualcreditreport.com cannot be accessed from a non-US ISP, the pdf form doesn't have space for a foreign address, the telephone is automated and won't accept foreign addresses. Once, by accident (ok, by pressing 0 repeatedly) I got a real live person on the phone, and they kind of gave me a dull, "uh, yeah, it's really only meant for people who are living in the US." They recommended waiting until I return. And what if I go to apply for an apartment and can't get one because of identity fraud? They don't know that.

I've tried Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and myFICO directly all with the same results. Am I just stupid?

(Also posted in the USA section.)

You are not stupid. I have had the same problem but worse. 2 years ago a former colleague sent me an email saying that my former boss wanted to speak to me. It turns out that they had been contacted by a couple of different banks about some loans I had applied for. In the end the 1 bank told me that they had run a credit report on me and they said that there was alot of activity but they questioned my working in Florida but living in Indiana. I too called all 3 agencies with the same results you had. I could not even get them to send me the report to my mom's since I could not remember my last address I lived at (almost 10 years ago) and I even offered to pay for it. The one company did let me speak to a "supervisor" who told me that I could not do anything until I returned to live in the States but did want me to be aware that my credit was not looking good and if I did not get it straightened out that I could find myself in major legal trouble. Obviously someone has stolen my identity but no is willing to help me fix it. I did ask a legal office about it (in Florida) and they said that if I was not moving back to the States than I would just have to wait and if it got really bad an arrest warrant would be issued for me - so in other words everytime I want to go to the States I have to risk being arrested for something I haven't done. I raised such h*ll with the agencies that I can't do much but you could always try giving a family member all your info and asking them to call and say they are you and see if they can get one. Good luck and let me know if that works.

Hm. Might be time to write to our congresspeople. It simply cannot be that this right is not extended to us just because we are not currently living in the US. That certainly points to nefarious intentions on the part of the credit reporting agencies (as if we didn't know that already, they had to be forced by congress to even give out the information in the first place). Credit reports are far too important to exclude anyone from having fair access.

I will certainly post any solution I come up with.

Try applying for a US credit card using a US address. I did that recently, with Bank of America, so that I could find out what the situation was. They are required by law to provide you with your credit report if they turn you down for credit. They also mailed me information to The Netherlands.

Well, I'm actually having my credit checked to see if I qualify to lease an apartment. I'll be entitled to a copy of my report, but I don't think the entity doing the checking is required to provide it. The credit reporting agency is. Did you get the report from one of the CRAs or from Bank of America?