Description:  Your personal credit report tells many things about you, like how well payments are managed, as well as your finances. The story continues to be told for several years and should be checked regularly.

 

 

Obtaining free credit reports from the credit bureaus

Every American is allowed one free 3 in 1 credit report every 12 months and you can  are able to order one free credit report every 12 month period.  You are entitled, by law, to get one free one from each one of the three agencies.  Together, a website is run by the three major credit bureaus called Annualcreditreport.com, and consumers can order their free credit report and can also purchase their credit score separately.

 

To order your free credit report online, go to the website: www.annualcreditreport.com.  They also have a toll-free number along with a mailing address to make it easy and convenient.  To order by phone, call  877-322-8228 and for mail ordering, send a request to:  P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

 

They will ask you to provide them with information in order to maintain privacy and security.  Added security measures could possibly mean answering a security question specific to you.  There is no need to individually contact each of the three, they will provide three through the website.

 

Why should I get a copy of my credit report?

Your personal credit report includes information that will affect if you could possibly get an auto loan, employment, or a mortgage.  You will want to have your credit report in order to ensure accuracy.  The information that you should check is identifying data, accounts and inquiries.  Safeguarding against identity theft is another huge reason to monitor your credit file.  You should be sure that there are no errors.

Under the federal law, you are entitled to one free credit report, but if you need to purchase another one they normally run around $10.00.  You can order one through the credit bureaus listed below:

·         Equifax.com

·         Experian.com

·         TransUnion.com

All of the three bureaus operate independently so the records are not always the same.  You’ll need to check all three for accuracy because they don’t share information.

Credit Monitoring can be done yourself or you can subscribe to a service that will do it for you.  They will check your credit report for suspicious activity and changes.  Some of the things that are checked are listed below:

·                     Any recent changes in account activity, like purchases, etc.

·                     Who has been inquiring and if authorized or not.

·                     New accounts – this could be a signal of identity theft.

·                     An address change could also signal identity theft.

·                     Credit increases to credit cards and personal lines of credit.

If you do use a monitoring service, they will check them periodically and place locks where necessary.  They can also protect you by placing fraud alerts on your credit reports, if needed.  A fraud alert is a precaution to prevent unauthorized use of your information.  The monitoring service will contact you for approval before letting anything be changed on your credit report.

There are many optional services like credit monitoring that you can use in order to monitor your credit report.  All three of the credit bureaus have a monitoring service in which you can subscribe for a monthly fee.  The costs are similar and the services vary.  Most all of them come with unlimited access to your credit report and credit scores.  They also monitor and check all of your national 3 credit reports daily.  They will email you with any changes to any of the reports.  The packages available also have theft insurance included.

Experian offers the Triple Advantage and it the price for this service is $14.95 monthly.  They also have various other services ranging from $5.95 to $34.95.

Equifax has monitoring packages from $8.95 to $12.95.

TransUnion has unlimited viewing of ALL 3 of the credit reports and scores for $14.95 a month.

All of the above monitoring services have a free 30 day trial with no obligation to continue, cancel anytime, or continue with the coverage and pay the monthly fee.

It really is an important thing to monitor your credit report and to make sure that everything that is listed is accurate.  The credit monitoring services can do the checking for you and you will have less to worry about.