Posts Tagged ‘Annual Credit Report’

Where Do I Get My Free Annual Credit Report?

March 23rd, 2011
Ally Woodrum asked:




I’m sure you’ve heard the jingle sung by those young guys in pirate costumes, or the same guys riding around in the dreadful old car. Have you also seen the ads that misspell all or part of the above title? Well, all of those tactics are being used to separate you from your hard earned dollars and keep you from taking advantage of the fact that you really can get a free credit report.

According to the Federal Trade Commission there are a number of “Imposter Websites.” They claim to offer you a “free” credit report, but if you apply for one at their site, you will have to sign up for something they are selling before they will help you get the free report you are entitled to by law. Well, don’t pay these imposters, go to the correct web sites and get your reports for free, no strings attached.

There are several ways you can qualify for a free credit report. First, by law you are entitled to receive a free credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax (Equifax.com), Experian (Experian.com) and Transunion (TransUnion.com) once a year. You can request the reports directly from each agency all at the same time, or you can order them one at a time, staggering them every few months. You can also go to the government’s web site, annualcreditreport.com, and order your free reports there.

My suggestion would be to order

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Free Annual Credit Report – 3 Reasons to Get One

March 17th, 2011
Scott Lovingood asked:




Managing your credit history is a very important step in creating wealth in your life. A good bit of it is based on handling your money and credit correctly. The other part though is how it gets reported as well.

Every person in the US has a credit history. For some people it is blank. They don’t have a record yet of how they handle history. For some people it could fill a large volume of encyclopedias. Now the question becomes is your credit history accurate?

The US government requires the major credit bureaus to provide a copy of your credit history for free once a year. That is why you will often hear people talk about the free annual credit report.

It isn’t the same as your credit score though. It is important to realize that your credit score is still tough to determine as each company calculates them differently.

The three major credit bureaus are Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Think of them as giant record keepers. They get reports from credit card companies, auto loans, mortgage loans, and other areas. Not every company reports to all three. Some will only report your information to one or two of them.

There are three main reasons to get a copy of your free annual credit report. We will discuss each of them in more detail below.

Inaccuracies Identify Theft Forgotten Credit Lines

Inaccuracies can riddle your credit report. The systems involved in collecting this information is not perfect. It is very possible that information is reported to the company incorrectly. For example your credit card company can report that you had a card be placed into collections. It can happen from an employee mistyping information into a computer program.

It is also possible that someone else’s credit is being sent under your identity. I have a friend whose name is the same as her sister in law. They share first and last names but have different middle names. When she went to apply for a loan on a home, they were very confused by her credit history. They lived in different states, had different jobs, and different financial histories. The credit bureaus had mixed them up in places.

It took a while to get everything corrected so she could purchase her home. Getting a copy will allow you to find these errors quickly and get them corrected.

Identify Theft is a growing problem in the world. Getting a copy of your credit history can allow you to find out if someone has stolen your personal information. The credit bureaus will show any credit that is opened in your name. By checking it on a regular basis you can prevent this. You can also request that they put a freeze on your credit. This prevents anyone from opening credit in your name. Just remember to take it off when you get ready to apply for credit.

Forgotten credit lines may not sound like a big deal but they can be. It is not a good idea to have credit lines floating around. I found a couple of store credit cards on my report that I had completely forgotten about. I had gotten them when I was much younger and establishing my credit.

I kept the credit lines but requested that they be frozen. I didn’t want to remove them as they would impact my credit score. I also didn’t want to leave them laying around in case someone got the information and started using them.

Jon
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Credit Report Agencies – What Do They Offer?

March 16th, 2011
Arturo Ronzon asked:




The major function of the credit report agencies is to provide consumers around the world with a correct report of the details of credit transactions made from the utility of credit facilities enjoyed from creditors such as banks, other financial and non financial institutions. In view of this definition one will describe the credit report as a history of the consumer’s credit activities in a specified frame of time according to the time limit given by the reporting company. Having defined the essentials, we need to know that there are only three consumer companies in operation in the United States and they are Equifax, Experian and Trans Union, these are laden with the responsibility of providing credit report for all residence of the country. There are some services offered by these companies and this article is aimed as enumerating them, so as to educate the populace of the services attainable at these companies.

Firstly the Fair Credit Reporting Act mandated the three credit report agencies to furnish the populace with a free copy of their credit report once a year, this means that everyone is entitled to three free copies of their credit report each year from the three consumer companies – this is known as the free annual credit report, you can get your copy from http://www.annualcreditreport.com this website is the official website produced just for the purpose of requesting for a free credit report and is the best place to apply online in other to avoid identity theft as much as possible. It should be noted that this offer is free.

The credit report agency also offer as a special service an around the clock surveillance of your credit report giving you the opportunity to have a close watch on your report, knowing every current entry as a means to guard against the error of reporting. There is an alert created that informs the consumer of current changes made to their record. This service is not free since it is an additional service.

Another important service most credit report agencies offer is a fraud control system that monitors and protects the consumer’s record from fraudsters we indulge in identity theft. This facility is also an additional service which is paid for, and there is also an insurance coverage available for the event of identity; the amount of this insurance varies from agency to agency. These are some of the major services offered by the consumer companies.

Martin
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Free Credit Report Service Recommended by Clark Howard

March 11th, 2011
Lyn Collier asked:




You don’t have to sign up for a trial membership of a credit protection service to get free copies of your credit reports. There a few one-stop websites where you can order credit reports from all three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. It’s easy. One site, Annual Credit Report, is even recommended by Consumer advocate Clark Howard as well as the Consumer Credit Counseling Service.

By the way, your “credit report” is not the same thing as your “credit score.” The reports will give your credit activity only – not your FICO score. The FICO score is a number that is generated using info from all three agencies. It is a product of Fair Isaac Credit Org. (FICO) and must be purchased – $15.95

When you get to the site and start clicking around to request your free report, a few things might concern you. The main thing…and it is kind of unavoidable is the request for you to enter your Social Security number. If you have strong reservations about entering your SS number online, you can just skip the rest of the article and look up the 800 number and do the transaction on the phone. But either way, you will to have to provide your social security number.

Back to the online request. At some point during your online request for a free credit report , each bureau will try to sell you their products. Stay focused.

Here is the protocol for Experian for example: (and they are all pretty much alike so I will spare you the details on the other 2)

Step 1 on the Experian site will offer to sell you your Experian credit score for $5.95. Each bureau assigns a score, but their scores do not represent your FICO score.The FICO score is the one that most creditors use. I don’t recommend buying a credit score from anyone other than FICO. it’s the only one that counts. When asked if you want to purchase your “Experian” score, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “No thanks, I just want my free annual credit report.”

You will cruise through the steps pretty quickly. The only time you might have a problem is if you don’t answer the identification verification questions correctly. If you answer incorrectly you will be given a toll-free number to call where your i.d. can be verified manually.

Once you are done on the Experian site, you will be prompted to return to the Annual Credit Report site and continue with the other credit bureaus.

All the sites will walk you through the same process offering to sell you their products along the way. Remember, your goal is to get free credit reports, not buy stuff. Follow the prompts and you will instantly get your three credit reports free of charge.

Susan
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Free Government Credit Report

February 16th, 2011
Thomas Morva asked:




The fair credit-reporting act makes it mandatory for the three organizations (Equifax, Trans Union and Experian) to submit a credit report at least once a year to anyone who requests for the same. Typing ?annual credit report? in a search engine, which provides credit reports online and at free of cost, can give access to the appropriate online site.

A free government credit report is also available by phone or by mail and reaches the concerned person within fifteen days of requesting. The government agency that provides free credit reports is located in Atlanta (Georgia) and can be contacted via mail or telephone.

The prerequisites that are required for obtaining a free credit report are ? the person?s name, address, social security number, and date of birth. There are some other ?imposter? credit reporting companies that try to mimic the actual agency?s website by deliberately misspelling it. This is a common tactic used by companies who try to extract money from unsuspecting credit report mongers.

Under the federal law, a person is permitted to obtain a free credit report if a company takes unfavorable action against him, such as rejecting his application for credit, insurance, or employment then the person can demand a free credit report within sixty days of receiving the notice. The notice will give the name, address, and telephone number of the consumer reporting company. A person is also entitled to one free report a year if he is unemployed and plans to search for a job within 60 days if he is on welfare or if his report is inaccurate as a result of swindling, including identity theft.

A credit report can make or break a company or a person because all the financial data and history of the report holder is clearly mentioned in this report. The most important fact to be noted about a credit report is that any negative comment or remark on the report will literally leave an indelible mark on the person?s financial record. This is because a bad credit remark is not removed from a credit report for at least ten years.

Alan
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Free Annual Credit Report

February 15th, 2011
asked:




Julia
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Free Annual credit report-Know your credit status

February 12th, 2011
asked:




Paula
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Annual credit report- gets to know your fiscal stature

February 3rd, 2011
asked:




Frances
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Simple Ways To Order Your Three Free Annual Credit Reports From The Credit Reporting Companies

January 15th, 2011
Tim Gorman asked:




The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) mandates each of America’s credit reporting companies to provide each and every citizen with a free annual credit report on request – the three companies being Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. These three financial organizations have jointly hosted a common website from where consumers can order their free report online. There are many websites that offer free credit reports but they are never absolutely free – they will offer this as part of some other service for which you will be charged. You need to be aware of some devious tactics followed by some of these companies – in fact, if you make a spelling error in the website address, you are likely to be led to a site that will actually charge you for your credit information before they actually release it to you!

The three credit agencies also provide the annual credit report for free through a toll free telephone number 1-877-322-8228 and also through a mail request if you send a filled-in annual credit report request form to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-528. You can get your credit history and information for free only through the above avenues – any other way, including contacting the three companies independently, would most likely involve some form of payment or charges.

Having learned the ways to get an annual credit report absolutely free, you might want to know what use the information will be to you. A credit report is necessary for you to get information about your credit worthiness; that is, how the lenders in the financial market perceive you in terms of being a financial risk to them should they loan you money. It lets you keep a close watch on your credit score which actually determines how much credit you can get and what interest rates you will be charged. If you have a high score or above average rating it stands to reason that you can command higher loan amounts at lower interest rates compared to a person whose credit rating is not so good.

Using the personal information provided in your report, you can also make sure that no identity theft has happened using your personal identity. The list of your debts, along with your payments details, late payments and pending payments will be provided in great detail in the report. By keeping a track of this, it is a simple task to spot an identity theft that may have taken place. In case your identity has been stolen and has been used to get loans other than what you own, you can flag it and then report it to the credit agency immediately.

You can get three credit reports using one of the ways stated above – one report from each of the credit reporting companies. You can choose to order them simultaneously or at different times. Ordering them at three different times through the year is a good idea because you can track your credit rating through out the year. If you order the your history after taking a particularly heavy credit or after paying off a heavy debt, it can prove to be very useful. You will know the exact impact the latest transaction has created on your rating, by comparing the current credit report and the previous one.

Now that the uses of a credit report are apparent and you know that there are simple ways to order three credit reports absolutely free on an annual basis, you should reap maximum benefits by making use of the free service.

Peggy
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There’s Only One Way to Get a Free Credit Report

January 4th, 2011
Jon Waldrep asked:




Want a Free Annual Credit Report?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the “Big Three” nationwide consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to provide you with a free copy of your credit report every 12 months. Prior to the Fair Credit Reporting Act a credit report could set you back nearly $10 each.

A credit report will include information on where you live and have lived in the past, how you pay your bills and whether you’ve been sued or arrested. It may list your current or past employers. It will also show if you have filed for bankruptcy. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, along with other agencies, make a profit by selling the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers, and other companies who will use it to appraise your for credit to make a major purchase, buy insurance, get a job or rent a house or apartment.

If you do a search under “free credit reports” you will get hundreds of results from companies who would love to sell you a credit report or ongoing credit monitoring. These sites are impostors whose real scheme is to snag people who may think they are looking at the official site for free credit reports. In fact, many of these sneaky sites are actually operated by Experian, Equifax and TransUnion themselves so that they can charge you for the same thing you are entitled to get for free.

While there may be times that you need to buy a report or it may be appropriate to use credit monitoring services, most of us just need to take a look at our credit report once a year to ensure there are not inaccuracies.

If you do get your free credit report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act this year it’s important to note that the reports will not be sent automatically next year. You’ll need to make a new request each year that you wish to receive a new one.

There are a few exceptions to the 12 month rule. Under the law you’re entitled to receive a free report if you are turned down for a loan, job, insurance, etc. because of your credit. In that case you can ask for your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. All companies have to inform you if they will be checking your credit and often you can request a copy of whatever they receive simply by checking the appropriate box on the application. You can also get a free report if you reside in one of the states that already offers free credit reports from each credit-reporting agency (Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and Vermont) or you’re applying for unemployment or receive public assistance.

Here’s how to request your copy of your credit report.

Online:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has established a website (annualcreditreport.com) to order your free annual credit report online. This is the one and only authorized website to get your free credit report under the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This website is legitimate and is absolutely free. If you are on a website and it asked for a credit card you are either in the wrong place or you are paying for additional services offered by one of the three credit reporting agencies. Annualcreditreport.com is a great resource if you only need a copy of your credit report every 12 months.

Go to: annualcreditreport.com.

By Phone:

Call 1-877-322-8228

By Completing an Annual Credit Report Request Form

This form is available online at ftc.gov/credit. Once you complete the annual credit report request form you will mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

By Contact the Agencies Directly:

While the FTC does not recommend you request your report directly from each individual agency, it is possible to do so.

First of all, fair warning, the credit bureaus change their mailing addresses to request a credit report by mail all the time. Apparently they do not like written requests or mailing full reports because (obviously) it is more labor intensive and expensive to send a printed copy via snail mail. But many people like to have a “hard copy” directly from the credit bureaus in their hands. Before you use any of the addresses below please double check on the official websites (also below) to confirm the mailing address. There are often several mailing addresses listed for different departments or services so be sure you are sending your request to the correct address to request a free copy of your annual credit report. Remember, regardless of how you request your credit report the same once-every-12-month rule applies.

It’s a good idea to include the following information when you request a free copy of your annual credit report with the three with the three major credit bureaus. Don’t forget to SIGN YOUR REQUEST. In your letter you should provide:

* Your full name

* Your date of birth

* Your Social Security number

* Your current address AND any former address/addresses when you have lived for the previous 5 years

* A photocopy of your driving license, showing current address (or other government-issued proof of identity such as a passport)

* Your Social Security numbers and/or a photocopy of your Social Security card

* You may want to also include a current utility bill containing your current address if you have not been there long.

The addresses for the three major credit reporting agencies are listed below:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, Georgia 30374
equifax.com

Experian
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, Texas 75013
experian.com

TransUnion
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
transunion.com

Once you get your report you will need to carefully review it for inaccuracies. If you ordered your reports online at annualcreditreport.com, you’ll find that all three credit bureaus offer some form online dispute resolution. This is a good place to start, but can be limiting and may not resolve all of your problems.

If you want to call and dispute errors on your report each of the three agencies use the number below for the corresponding agency.

* Equifax: (800) 685-1111 (Online Dispute Resolution)

* Experian: (888) 397-3742 (Online Dispute Resolution)

* TransUnion: (800) 888-4213 (Online Dispute Resolution)

The best way to fix an error on your credit report may be by mail. While not as convenient as online dispute resolution, a dispute letter gives you the opportunity to spell out in detail what the error is and how it may have occurred. The agency has a legal obligation to thoroughly check the details of your dispute letter and report their findings back to you. Before you send a letter you may want to call the credit bureaus to verify what you need to do for your specific case and what information you may need to send with your letter.

Typical items you may need to include are:

* A copy of your driver’s license or state ID card

* A copy of your Social Security card

* The name of the creditor or collection agency in question

* The associated account number in question

* A full, written description of why you’re disputing it

* Any written proof you may have that will support your case

There are many examples of sample dispute letters online.

Finally, you should note that while you will get a credit report, you will not get a credit score (or a FICO score). You can roughly estimate your actual credit score by using a free credit score estimator.

Christopher
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