Free Credit
Reports From The Government
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has set up a
new website (www.AnnualCreditReport.com)
where US residents can obtain free copies of
their credit reports from the three major credit
report bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion and
Experian). The FTC site was set up as part of
the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act
enacted last December. The site was set up in an
effort to help fight the increasing threat of
identity theft. The credit reports must be
ordered from the FTC site to get them for free.
If you order your credit report directly from
one of the credit report agencies' sites, you'll
be charged a fee for the report.
While a number of websites on the Internet
currently offer free credit reports, these free
reports require a credit card be put on file as
a free trial membership of their credit report
monitoring service. The reports have been free
if you remember to cancel the trial membership,
but can end up being quite costly if you
accidentally forget. The new FTC site is
marketing free and no credit card is required.
To request your credit reports, you'll need to
provide your name, address, Social Security
number and date of birth. In addition, the
credit bureaus may ask you for other information
to confirm your identity such as your current
monthly mortgage payment. Consumers can also
order their free credit reports by calling
877-322-8228 (toll-free) or by mail by writing
to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O.
Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
The free credit reports aren't currently
available to all US residents. They're being
phased in over the next year by region to
prevent the system from being overwhelmed.
Currently residents living in Alaska, Arizona,
California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana,
New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington,
and Wyoming can obtain the free credit reports.
Residents in the Midwest can get their free
credit reports beginning in March, residents in
the South beginning in June and residents in the
East beginning in September.
Instead of ordering credit reports from all
three credit report agencies at once, you might
want to consider staggering the three reports so
that you receive one credit report every 4
months. This allows you to see how your credit
report is changing over time and whether any
mistakes you find have been corrected. It will
also increases the chances that you will catch
any attempts at identity theft more quickly. If,
however, you're considering a large purchase
such as a home or car where your credit score
will be used to determine your eligibility,
you'll want to get all three right away. This
will allow you to take care of any potential
problems as soon as possible.
Once you've received your reports, review each
one carefully. The three credit reporting
agencies handle millions of pieces of
information each year and some estimates have
errors in as many as half of the credit reports
with a major error in ever one in four. By
making sure that all the information contained
in the reports is accurate, you will ensure that
you receive the best rates from credit agencies
in the future.
Now that credit reports are free of charge,
there is no reason not to request them each and
every year. Keeping tabs on your credit report
is one of the most effective ways to protect
yourself against identity theft and make sure
that all the information that your creditors are
accessing is accurate.
This article is the property of
www.1st-in-homeloans.com, which has been
offering home mortgage services since 2002. To
find out more visit
www.1st-in-homeloans.com
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