Credit Reports - Free At Last!
Elana just mentioned this a few days ago but it bears repeating.
If you are in one of the eastern states or a US territory like me, our time has finally arrived! As of September 1, 2005, we are now eligible for a free copy of our credit reports. We are the last of the four US regions to be able to take advantage of an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, called the FACT Act, granting us this right to our credit file disclosures once per year.
For Equifax, Experian and Transunion credit reports, the place to receive them is at the Annual Credit Report website. The URL for this website is: http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Use the link from here or from the Federal Trade Commission website. Be careful! Some companies have registered sites very close to this name just to trick you into paying for what you are already entitled to for free or to sign you up for their credit monitoring services. Don’t do it. If you think you might have already been tricked into doing this, follow the FTC link above to see if you are entitled to a refund or to file a complaint.
Uneasy requesting your credit reports over the internet? You can call 1-877-322-8228 or print this request form and mail it to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Phone and mail requests will result in your credit reports being mailed to you.
These free credit reports are your opportunity to review your report for inaccuracies and any unusual activity potentially indicating you are a victim of identity theft. Please take advantage of this and don’t miss any deadlines given for submitting disputes.
This is very important - If you do believe you are a victim of identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission maintains a website on identity theft outlining the steps you need to follow to protect your rights as best you can. This won’t fix itself. You need to act and act now!
Whether you’re working to resolve an identity theft problem or just correcting inaccuracies on your report, follow through anything you would like to fix till you have a definitive resolution. Sometimes, it’s not easy but it is better to do it now than to have to do it under the stress of a home-closing or car-buying deadline. Believe me, this is one thing you don’t want to procrastinate in doing.
http://www.annualcreditreport.com
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September 1st, 2005 at 9:02 am
[...] Liz wrote up an article on Money Stuffed with more information about getting your report. It’s September 1st! The entire United States is eligible! [...]
September 1st, 2005 at 1:59 pm
I recently read a great hint on keeping up with your credit more often than once a year without paying a dime. As we’re all entitled to a free report once a year from *EACH* agency, you can spread them out over the year to get one every four months. It’s easy and helps keep you more current than just once a year.
February 12th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
In some states, such as Massachusetts, you’re already entitled to a free credit report each year. This means you can pull your report TWICE from each of the agencies in these states. If you use Carl’s suggestion, you can pull a report every TWO months.
March 20th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
[...] Credit Offers in the MailBook Review: Your Credit ScoreBook Review: Young, Fabulous & BrokeCredit Reports - Free At Last!Is Unclaimed Property Waiting for You? [...]
March 28th, 2006 at 11:12 am
[...] According to their website, “VantageScore is an innovative score that simplifies and enhances the credit process for both consumers and credit grantors. It’s the first credit scoring model to be developed jointly by the national credit reporting companies. As a result, it leverages the collective expertise of the industry’s leading specialists in credit data, credit risk modeling and analytics to offer greater predictiveness and consistency.” In layman’s terms, it’s a credit score, not to be confused with your credit report, which you can get for free annually. FICO scores, available from myfico.com, will run you $14.95 for a score from one of the bureaus, and $44.85 for scores from all three bureaus. Purchasing your score will also come with credit reports from the agency (or agencies) you purchased the score from. [...]
April 11th, 2006 at 10:24 am
[...] Coincidentally, in January I did one of my two annual credit report pulls from Experian. I can pull twice a year as a Massachusetts resident, but messed up in September and pulled all three at once, so I’m limited to one per agency until September. In May, I’ll pull Transunion’s report. Experian had several errors on my report. I can dispute most of them online, but I had to write a letter about my name being wrong and indicating my correct current employer (they still listed IBM). This got me another report. Since reports can be accessed online for 90 days, I can access this particular report until late May. I’ve been checking it for new information sporadically, as it doesn’t really change often. After Liz’s article on creditors failing to report your actual limit and only reporting your high balance, I challenged a couple more. One of those disputes was resolved yesterday and I received an email to go check today, prompting me to take another peek at my report. [...]
May 1st, 2006 at 9:49 am
[...] Credit Offers in the MailBook Review: Your Credit ScoreBook Review: Young, Fabulous & BrokeCredit Reports - Free At Last!Is Unclaimed Property Waiting for You? [...]
September 9th, 2006 at 6:13 pm
[...] Credit Offers in the MailBook Review: Your Credit ScoreBook Review: Young, Fabulous & BrokeCredit Reports - Free At Last!Is Unclaimed Property Waiting for You? [...]
February 6th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Using TrueCredit (transunion) or Experian’s paid sites, for about $19 to $25 a month, you can get all three agencies. Free credit reports are fine, but if you are trying to improve your credit, then it might be worth it. Especially if there is erroneous info that is being corrected.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:34 am
I don’t think I would ever pay monthly for a credit report or a service. If you get the free reports and dispute something, they’ll send you a copy of the results of your dispute and how that entry looks after it. Sometimes, they even send you a whole new copy of your credit report.
Now, if you have awful credit and it’s very wrong, it might be worth it for a period of time, like if you’re fighting with a company who keeps putting something back on your credit or you have a case of identity theft. If your credit is legitimately bad but it’s accurate, there may be very little to do on the credit report end and the focus should be on positive improvements in your habits and current credit usage. You can always work with your creditors but they have no obligation to go lightly on you.
For a normal person disputing a couple of things here and there, I wouldn’t recommend paying monthly for access to your credit unless you have the money to burn and truly enjoy this sort of thing. I do, but not enough to pay the CRAs for continuous access.