A deluge of television and radio ads promoting free credit reports  have certainly caught the attention of many consumers. After all, no one would put so much money into an expensive advertising campaign unless it worked, right?

Take a closer look at what is being offered and you soon learn that there is a string attached to the so-called free offer. You will get your credit reports for free, but you’ll have to pay for a second service – credit monitoring – that you may not need.

How To Get Your Free Copies

Instead of paying for something that you don’t need, why not get copies of your report for free? As a result of an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 2003, Congress authorized the Federal Trade Commission to require that copies of your credit report be made available to you for no charge. Previously, in order to obtain your copy, you would have had to pay a fee for each one. Beginning in September 2005, residents of all fifty states became eligible to get a free copy of their credit report from Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax once annually.

Why were the reports made available at no charge to consumers? Well, even though all three companies operate independently of the federal government, their combined strength carries so much weight in determining your credit standing that a decision was made that everyone should have the right to obtain their personal credit reports on demand. Moreover, since a substantial number of these reports have been determined to include errors, consumer advocates insisted that you shouldn’t have to pay to rectify someone else’s errors. Thusly, the Fair Credit Reporting Act as amended in 2003 became law.

Get It Online Or In Writing

There are several ways you can order your free credit reports, but there is only one web site that will give you your reports for free: www.annualcreditreport.com. Again, only this one site acts on behalf of Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union to give you your reports to you for free.

You can also call the following toll free number to order your free credit reports: 1-877-322-8228

If you wish, you can place your request in writing after downloading and filling out a form found online at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/resources/forms/requestformfinal.pdf. If you choose this method, you will need to mail the form to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

For more information about the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Federal Trade Commission, please visit the following site: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm

When ordering your reports you can also ask for your FICO score. Unlike your free credit report, you will pay a small fee – usually $5 and $8 – to get your score. If you choose to find out your score you can use a credit card to pay for your order.

The three national credit reporting bureaus may also seek to sell other services to you while you are checking off the information for your free credit report. These services include alerts, but you probably don’t need them. If you select some of the other offers, you will be charged for those services, so be careful what you choose.

Resources

Check Your Credit

Federal Trade Commission

Financing Tips

Tags: credit score, Equifax, Experian, Federal Trade Commission, free credit report, Trans Union

Free credit reports. You’ve seen these types of ads before: if you use XYZ’s service, then you can get copies of your credit reports for free. Well, in reality what they are saying isn’t wrong, but you don’t need this type of service to get your copies for free.

Your personal credit reports are available to you for free from each of the Big 3 credit reporting bureaus. Beginning in 2005, Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian were instructed by the U.S. Congress to supply one copy of your credit report to you for free annually on demand. If you choose to order more than one copy from the same bureau within that year you will pay for your report. Moreover, if you want your credit score, you’ll have to pay a fee for this service, generally costing you between $4 and $7 per reporting bureau.

Credit Reports, Credit Scores, Credit Monitoring

On the other hand, there are companies who market free credit scores as part of their package of selling to you copies of your credit reports and credit scores. In these situations you are paying for what is already for free elsewhere while getting your credit score included with that price. Essentially you are getting your credit reports and the free credit score as part of a package which usually includes a credit monitoring service as well. Regardless, you will probably pay more for the combined service than if you were to do the work yourself. Again, since it is a service that you are buying, expect to put out some cash if you choose to go with the free credit score with credit report package angle.

Congressional Mandated Credit Reports

For consumers wanting to bypass these types of offers, a visit to AnnualCreditReport.com is a must. Once again, with this scenario your credit report will be free but don’t look for a free credit score. The previously mentioned $4 to $7 fee will be charged to your credit card, but only if you choose to get your score.

Like so many ads you would do best to shop around and read the legal print. Yes, companies do provide a service by offering reports and scores to you. For some consumers this is a great way to have someone remind them to get copies of their reports and scores along with the added benefit of monitoring your credit for you.

Get Your Credit Reports ASAP

Regardless of what method you choose to obtain this vital information, make certain that you obtain a copy of your credit report and scores today. If you are getting ready to make a major purchase (house, vehicle, college tuition) and expect to borrow money, then obtaining this information in advance of applying for a loan is important. Most credit reports contain errors, mistakes which when corrected can lower your interest rates while increasing the odds that you’ll be approved for a loan.

Tags: annual credit report, college tuition, Credit Cards, credit report, credit score, Equifax, Experian, Student Aid, Loans, Trans Union

You’ve decided to go ahead with an important consumer purchase, perhaps that new car you always wanted even a vacation home and you receive a nasty piece of information — your credit is awful. “This can’t be!,” you think but according to at least one of the credit reporting services you aren’t even fit to buy a new shirt, let alone a high ticket consumer item.

Some consumers have bad credit because of action they took which caused accurate negative information to be added to their record. But, for many other consumers inaccurate even false information could have found its way into their reports.

How To Fix Your Credit Report

Your credit report won’t fix itself, but with your pro-active work you can take care of each mistake one by one.

To get started you should:

• Retrieve copies of each of the three major credit reports. These are available for free from AnnualCreditReport.Com, a service of the Big Three credit reporting services: Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian. By law, the companies must allow you to access your reports once annually for free.

• Examine the report closely to make sure that your name, social security number, address and other personal information is correct.

• Check your individual accounts as they should each be in good standing. If not, find out the reason why an account isn’t in good standing. If it is due to something you did, then you cannot correct this problem other than making future payments on time. If there is an error with the account, contact the appropriate credit reporting service and explain to them what information you found is incorrect.

Notifying the Credit Reporting Service

If you discover an error, make a copy of the credit report and circle in red what you believe to be wrong information. Then, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s site and copy their sample dispute letter and change it accordingly. You’ll be sending the letter and your credit report to the service.

The credit reporting service must launch an investigation within thirty days, contacting the creditor on your behalf. Please note that the credit reporting service can come to any number of conclusions based on their investigation:

• Information that you dispute which cannot be verified will be deleted from your file.

• Erroneous information must be corrected.

• Incomplete information must be completed.

• Information belonging to another consumer must be removed from your file.

Not all investigations will be ruled in your favor. Perhaps you overlooked an account or after correcting certain information you could still have negative, but accurate details on your report. You do have the right to attach a letter of explanation to your credit file which can help explain your position. Send a copy to the business in question too so that they have your dispute on file.

Wrong information on a credit report isn’t the end of the world, but not responding can be a problem — take control of your credit today and order your credit reports and obtain your credit score (which is an extra charge).

Resources

Check Your Credit

Federal Trade Commission

Financing Tips

Tags: credit report, credit score, Equifax, Experian, FTC, Trans Union