January 31, 2010
January 27, 2010
How to acquire a free credit report from each of the major credit bureaus?
asked:
I heard on CNN Headline News that you can obtain one free credit report per year from each of the 4 major credit bureaus.
I heard on CNN Headline News that you can obtain one free credit report per year from each of the 4 major credit bureaus.
Does anyone know the names of each credit bureau, the number to call (or address) and what you need to do to get a copy of your credit report?
Evelyn
Disputing Credit Report Information
Jenny R Smith asked:
Information obtained from your credit report enables creditors to gauge the risk factor in lending money to you. Credit report usually provides information on your identity and on how regularly you pay your bills. Credit report is used as the deciding factor by creditors when you apply for credit facility.
Thus, it is vital that you maintain a good credit report consciously. Incorrect information on your report could be damaging in the long term and will affect your buying power drastically. It is therefore necessary to monitor and make sure your information with the credit reporting agencies is updated and accurate.
In case of any discrepancies in your information or rating, you can dispute the credit report information with the help of the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA.
Review Your Credit Report
The first step in verifying your credit report is to obtain a copy of one. According to Federal law, you are eligible to one copy of credit report from each of the agencies annually. After obtaining your credit report, go through it thoroughly to ensure that the information reported is correct or not. In case of incorrect information, you can dispute the same with the help of the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA.
File A Credit Report Dispute
Upon finding incorrect information in your credit report the first step should be to alert the credit bureau and the source of your information in writing. Doing this puts you on the path to dispute the wrong information.
The next step involves attaching proof supporting your claim. This includes statements or checks which have been canceled. Along with this it is a good idea to include your personal details like name, current postal address, and information on dispute and explanation on why the information is incorrect. To provide a clear picture, you could include a copy of the credit report highlighting the disputed information.
These documents have to be then dispatched through certified mail requesting for a return receipt. This will make sure you have proof your mail has been received by the credit bureau. It is very important to keep a copy of all the documents you send them.
The Credit Bureau Responds To Your Dispute
The credit bureau usually takes about thirty days to respond to your claim after checking all the necessary information and facts. Credit bureau sends the disputed facts to the information provider which in turn investigates the same and reports back to the bureau.
Upon completion of the investigation, the credit bureau provides you with the results. In case the dispute has been accepted and facts altered, the bureau provides you with a free copy of the changed report. Credit bureau can also be requested to send the correction to any other company which may have accessed your credit report in the past six months.
After all this, it is a good idea to check the other credit bureaus as well and set right the information.
Gary
Information obtained from your credit report enables creditors to gauge the risk factor in lending money to you. Credit report usually provides information on your identity and on how regularly you pay your bills. Credit report is used as the deciding factor by creditors when you apply for credit facility.
Thus, it is vital that you maintain a good credit report consciously. Incorrect information on your report could be damaging in the long term and will affect your buying power drastically. It is therefore necessary to monitor and make sure your information with the credit reporting agencies is updated and accurate.
In case of any discrepancies in your information or rating, you can dispute the credit report information with the help of the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA.
Review Your Credit Report
The first step in verifying your credit report is to obtain a copy of one. According to Federal law, you are eligible to one copy of credit report from each of the agencies annually. After obtaining your credit report, go through it thoroughly to ensure that the information reported is correct or not. In case of incorrect information, you can dispute the same with the help of the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA.
File A Credit Report Dispute
Upon finding incorrect information in your credit report the first step should be to alert the credit bureau and the source of your information in writing. Doing this puts you on the path to dispute the wrong information.
The next step involves attaching proof supporting your claim. This includes statements or checks which have been canceled. Along with this it is a good idea to include your personal details like name, current postal address, and information on dispute and explanation on why the information is incorrect. To provide a clear picture, you could include a copy of the credit report highlighting the disputed information.
These documents have to be then dispatched through certified mail requesting for a return receipt. This will make sure you have proof your mail has been received by the credit bureau. It is very important to keep a copy of all the documents you send them.
The Credit Bureau Responds To Your Dispute
The credit bureau usually takes about thirty days to respond to your claim after checking all the necessary information and facts. Credit bureau sends the disputed facts to the information provider which in turn investigates the same and reports back to the bureau.
Upon completion of the investigation, the credit bureau provides you with the results. In case the dispute has been accepted and facts altered, the bureau provides you with a free copy of the changed report. Credit bureau can also be requested to send the correction to any other company which may have accessed your credit report in the past six months.
After all this, it is a good idea to check the other credit bureaus as well and set right the information.
Gary
January 23, 2010
January 20, 2010
How Much Does a Free Credit Report Cost?
Scott Swinford asked:
If you saw an ad in the newspaper for a FREE CAR to the next 20 people who arrived at a particular car lot, would you go? I would! In fact, most people would probably be out the door before they read the fine print that said you must purchase a key for $28,000 to get the car for free. I can just imagine the riot at the dealership when the salespersons pointed that out to the mob in the sales lot.
Now apply that to your credit report.
With the sheer number of identity theft victims (many who are not aware of it yet) and the chance for mistakes in your credit file (Wall Street Journal estimates that 79% of all credit files have errors), it is in the consumer’s best interest to check their credit report on a regular basis and correct errors if and when they appear. I believe that this should be done every 6 months minimum and certainly before making a major purchase such as a car or a home.
The free credit resource that I recommend to my family, friends and clients is annualcreditreport (full contact information is below). This site is monitored by the FTC and created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies to allow everyone to have access to their credit report. You are given access to your report after answering a series of questions to verify your identity. They do not give you your scores for free, but you are allowed to purchase them from the site if you wish.
I tell my clients that they can purchase the scores if they wish, but the numbers that they are given may or may not (usually not) correspond to the scores that a mortgage lender would see. They are also different that what a car dealer would see and different than what your insurance agent would see. Add in the fact that some of the companies are using the new Vantage system while others are not and this whole ordeal can leave you very confused.
Back to my original question: how much does a free credit report cost? While the report may be given to you at no cost, it is usually under the condition that you sign up for some type of credit monitoring service. Although I will not plug any particular companies, I pay about $15 a month to have my reports “monitored”. I get an email when there is an inquiry on my report, if there are significant changes to it such as large balance changes or anything negative, and I get one once a month telling me that there were no changes. On top of that, I can run a new credit report on myself EVERY DAY if I wish and it will not hurt my scores like an inquiry from a credit card company, car dealer or mortgage lender might. If you decide to try one of the monitoring companies, they will usually let you cancel within the first 30 days without charge if you are not satisfied. Check their terms and conditions to be sure.
The downfall of annualcreditreport.com is that you are only able to pull one report from each of the three bureaus (Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax) every 12 months (in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act). For someone who just wants to check their report infrequently, they could get one report every 4 months and be safer than if they had done nothing. For some, it is worth a small financial outlay every month to have the protection that the other companies offer. It’s really up to the individual.
That’s all on Free Credit Reports. I will be releasing future articles on what to look for on your report, how to dispute issues that you may find and how to improve your scores, among other topics.
Here is how to get your free credit report:
Online: annualcreditreport.com
Phone: 1-877-322-8228
Mail: Print, complete and send the request form (found online at annualcreditreport.com) to
Annual Credit Report Request Service
PO Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Susan
If you saw an ad in the newspaper for a FREE CAR to the next 20 people who arrived at a particular car lot, would you go? I would! In fact, most people would probably be out the door before they read the fine print that said you must purchase a key for $28,000 to get the car for free. I can just imagine the riot at the dealership when the salespersons pointed that out to the mob in the sales lot.
Now apply that to your credit report.
With the sheer number of identity theft victims (many who are not aware of it yet) and the chance for mistakes in your credit file (Wall Street Journal estimates that 79% of all credit files have errors), it is in the consumer’s best interest to check their credit report on a regular basis and correct errors if and when they appear. I believe that this should be done every 6 months minimum and certainly before making a major purchase such as a car or a home.
The free credit resource that I recommend to my family, friends and clients is annualcreditreport (full contact information is below). This site is monitored by the FTC and created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies to allow everyone to have access to their credit report. You are given access to your report after answering a series of questions to verify your identity. They do not give you your scores for free, but you are allowed to purchase them from the site if you wish.
I tell my clients that they can purchase the scores if they wish, but the numbers that they are given may or may not (usually not) correspond to the scores that a mortgage lender would see. They are also different that what a car dealer would see and different than what your insurance agent would see. Add in the fact that some of the companies are using the new Vantage system while others are not and this whole ordeal can leave you very confused.
Back to my original question: how much does a free credit report cost? While the report may be given to you at no cost, it is usually under the condition that you sign up for some type of credit monitoring service. Although I will not plug any particular companies, I pay about $15 a month to have my reports “monitored”. I get an email when there is an inquiry on my report, if there are significant changes to it such as large balance changes or anything negative, and I get one once a month telling me that there were no changes. On top of that, I can run a new credit report on myself EVERY DAY if I wish and it will not hurt my scores like an inquiry from a credit card company, car dealer or mortgage lender might. If you decide to try one of the monitoring companies, they will usually let you cancel within the first 30 days without charge if you are not satisfied. Check their terms and conditions to be sure.
The downfall of annualcreditreport.com is that you are only able to pull one report from each of the three bureaus (Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax) every 12 months (in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act). For someone who just wants to check their report infrequently, they could get one report every 4 months and be safer than if they had done nothing. For some, it is worth a small financial outlay every month to have the protection that the other companies offer. It’s really up to the individual.
That’s all on Free Credit Reports. I will be releasing future articles on what to look for on your report, how to dispute issues that you may find and how to improve your scores, among other topics.
Here is how to get your free credit report:
Online: annualcreditreport.com
Phone: 1-877-322-8228
Mail: Print, complete and send the request form (found online at annualcreditreport.com) to
Annual Credit Report Request Service
PO Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Susan
Totally Free Online Credit Report – Advice On Where To Find A Free Credit Report
Tim Gorman asked:
Credit reports are pointers to your credit worthiness. It gives information about your credit history – past and present loans from various sources and payments made, late payments and payment dues to the creditors. From the credit report, the credit score is derived. The credit report is the basis on which you will be able to apply for various loans. The better your credit report, the better chances you will have of getting a loan. A good credit report will always fetch better loan amounts, lower interest rates and easier payment options. From a personal point of view, a credit report can help you to keep an eye on where you stand as regards to your credit situation.
Having stated the importance of a credit report, let us look at how to get totally free online credit reports. According to Fair and Accurate credit transaction Act, the three top credit agencies in the USA Experian, TransUnion and Equifax are obliged to provide free credit reports to those who seek them within a period of 12 months. The act has been enacted to ensure that every American knows what reports the credit bureaus are providing about him. It is also a measure to curb the increasing identity thefts and errors in the reports. So, getting your credit report periodically and manning it for errors and omissions has been made easy now.
The three credit bureaus have jointly created a website where you can request your rightful free copy of your credit report.
Log on to http://www.annualcreditreport.com for placing a request for your totally free online credit report. You have the option to order all three-credit reports simultaneously or order each one at different times. Ordering them at different times helps because you will be able to monitor your credit report on a periodic basis throughout the year. This way, you will be able to see the effects of any major financial transactions you might have got into. For example, if you are getting a large home loan, it will be a good idea to get a report before this to make sure it is in good order to fetch you a higher loan amount and lower interest rates. It will also be a good idea to get a report after a major transaction to ensure that all the details in the report are correct and to get an idea of what effect it has had on your credit report.
There are many sites online that advertise for a ‘free’ credit report or even a three-in-one credit report that has the reports from all the three top credit bureaus. But they are attached to some other offer, usually on a free trial basis for a week or a month. At the end of this period, your credit card account will be credited for some amount, if you forget to get out of the free trial (which typically everyone forgets). And you will be trapped into this offer for a minimum period like one year and have to continue to pay every month. For this reason, be careful of sites that advertise ‘free’ credit report(s). Plan your credit reporting and use the above-mentioned site to get your totally free online credit report, absolutely free of cost!
Doris
Credit reports are pointers to your credit worthiness. It gives information about your credit history – past and present loans from various sources and payments made, late payments and payment dues to the creditors. From the credit report, the credit score is derived. The credit report is the basis on which you will be able to apply for various loans. The better your credit report, the better chances you will have of getting a loan. A good credit report will always fetch better loan amounts, lower interest rates and easier payment options. From a personal point of view, a credit report can help you to keep an eye on where you stand as regards to your credit situation.
Having stated the importance of a credit report, let us look at how to get totally free online credit reports. According to Fair and Accurate credit transaction Act, the three top credit agencies in the USA Experian, TransUnion and Equifax are obliged to provide free credit reports to those who seek them within a period of 12 months. The act has been enacted to ensure that every American knows what reports the credit bureaus are providing about him. It is also a measure to curb the increasing identity thefts and errors in the reports. So, getting your credit report periodically and manning it for errors and omissions has been made easy now.
The three credit bureaus have jointly created a website where you can request your rightful free copy of your credit report.
Log on to http://www.annualcreditreport.com for placing a request for your totally free online credit report. You have the option to order all three-credit reports simultaneously or order each one at different times. Ordering them at different times helps because you will be able to monitor your credit report on a periodic basis throughout the year. This way, you will be able to see the effects of any major financial transactions you might have got into. For example, if you are getting a large home loan, it will be a good idea to get a report before this to make sure it is in good order to fetch you a higher loan amount and lower interest rates. It will also be a good idea to get a report after a major transaction to ensure that all the details in the report are correct and to get an idea of what effect it has had on your credit report.
There are many sites online that advertise for a ‘free’ credit report or even a three-in-one credit report that has the reports from all the three top credit bureaus. But they are attached to some other offer, usually on a free trial basis for a week or a month. At the end of this period, your credit card account will be credited for some amount, if you forget to get out of the free trial (which typically everyone forgets). And you will be trapped into this offer for a minimum period like one year and have to continue to pay every month. For this reason, be careful of sites that advertise ‘free’ credit report(s). Plan your credit reporting and use the above-mentioned site to get your totally free online credit report, absolutely free of cost!
Doris
January 19, 2010
January 18, 2010
How do I obtain my free yearly credit score report?
kesha asked:
How do I obtain my free yearly credit score report from the major credit agencies. I have heard that a law was passed and all agencies were to provide a persons credit report free once a year. I have encountered several websites claiming to be free but there are none that i have yet to come across. I do not have a bank account to paypal any of these credit report sites. How do I find the mojor credit agencies and how do I get my free credit report.
James
How do I obtain my free yearly credit score report from the major credit agencies. I have heard that a law was passed and all agencies were to provide a persons credit report free once a year. I have encountered several websites claiming to be free but there are none that i have yet to come across. I do not have a bank account to paypal any of these credit report sites. How do I find the mojor credit agencies and how do I get my free credit report.
James
January 17, 2010
How To Clear Your Credit Report
Hyder Khan asked:
If you’re being turned down for credit left and right by every mortgage broker, credit card company, and landlord, or you’re not even able to refinance your own house, that is an indication that you have some negative items on your credit report that are scaring away lenders. You have two choices: You can either walk away and decide to wait out the next seven years until those negative items drop off your credit report, or you can take control over the situation and learn how to delete negative items from your credit report.
You may have seen those advertisements where those law firms or credit counseling companies promise to fix your credit, raise your FICO score, and get you a fresh start. How do you delete negative items from your credit report? The answer is based on a law passed by Congress in the latter half of the twentieth century known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This law was passed to protect consumer’s rights to access their credit report and play an active role in ensuring that it does not contain any inaccuracies or misrepresentations of your true credit profile.
If you have derogatory information contained in any of the credit reports issued by the “big three” credit bureau, you simply need to write a letter to each respective creditor disputing the accuracy of that particular entry in your credit report. By law, then the bureau must contact the creditor to verify that specific item that is in dispute. And here is where the law works in your favor: If the bureau is unable to verify the accuracy of the information within 30 days, they are required to delete that item from your credit report altogether!
Here is an example of how you would do this: Let’s say that you were late for your mortgage payment in May of last year, you simply write a letter to the credit bureau that is reporting that late payment, detailing that entry, and including your name, address, and social security number, in which you state that in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are disputing such and such entry as you believe it may be inaccurate. And in this letter, you must state that, in accordance with the Act, if the agency does not verify this information within 30 days, then they are required to delete the information from your credit report.
Now what if the bureau is able to contact the creditor and verify the information within the 30-day timeframe? Well, then the information stays on your credit report. What if the creditor is a little slow but gets back to the bureau within 45 days? Then yes, even though the bureau deleted the item after 30 days, the information can be added back in the subsequent month. But through patience and persistence, if you follow this method, you will eventually be able to improve your credit score. There is no 100% guarantee, however, which is why shouldn’t pay anyone to fix your credit for you, unless they offer a money back-guarantee if your credit score doesn’t improve within a specific period of time.
A couple of bits of advice: Write one separate letter to each bureau for each disputed item. For example, if you have five derogatory items on your report, that were reported to all three bureaus, then you should write fifteen letters. This way you can track the progress of each dispute, plus it guarantees that the credit agency will pay individual attention to each one. Give them more paperwork to process and they will be that much more backlogged to meet their thirty-day deadline.
And one final bit of advice: The Fair Credit Reporting Act also allows the bureaus to disregard your dispute if it s frivolous in nature. In other words, if you do something to cause them to suspect that you are just filing disputes that you know are more than likely to be accurate, just for the sake of flooding them with requests, then they can disregard your inquiry and not take it seriously. Therefore, be careful not to do things like repeatedly dispute the same item over and over again if it keeps on getting verified. The law was passed to protect the legitimate needs of consumers against credit fraud or data entry errors.
Todd
If you’re being turned down for credit left and right by every mortgage broker, credit card company, and landlord, or you’re not even able to refinance your own house, that is an indication that you have some negative items on your credit report that are scaring away lenders. You have two choices: You can either walk away and decide to wait out the next seven years until those negative items drop off your credit report, or you can take control over the situation and learn how to delete negative items from your credit report.
You may have seen those advertisements where those law firms or credit counseling companies promise to fix your credit, raise your FICO score, and get you a fresh start. How do you delete negative items from your credit report? The answer is based on a law passed by Congress in the latter half of the twentieth century known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This law was passed to protect consumer’s rights to access their credit report and play an active role in ensuring that it does not contain any inaccuracies or misrepresentations of your true credit profile.
If you have derogatory information contained in any of the credit reports issued by the “big three” credit bureau, you simply need to write a letter to each respective creditor disputing the accuracy of that particular entry in your credit report. By law, then the bureau must contact the creditor to verify that specific item that is in dispute. And here is where the law works in your favor: If the bureau is unable to verify the accuracy of the information within 30 days, they are required to delete that item from your credit report altogether!
Here is an example of how you would do this: Let’s say that you were late for your mortgage payment in May of last year, you simply write a letter to the credit bureau that is reporting that late payment, detailing that entry, and including your name, address, and social security number, in which you state that in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are disputing such and such entry as you believe it may be inaccurate. And in this letter, you must state that, in accordance with the Act, if the agency does not verify this information within 30 days, then they are required to delete the information from your credit report.
Now what if the bureau is able to contact the creditor and verify the information within the 30-day timeframe? Well, then the information stays on your credit report. What if the creditor is a little slow but gets back to the bureau within 45 days? Then yes, even though the bureau deleted the item after 30 days, the information can be added back in the subsequent month. But through patience and persistence, if you follow this method, you will eventually be able to improve your credit score. There is no 100% guarantee, however, which is why shouldn’t pay anyone to fix your credit for you, unless they offer a money back-guarantee if your credit score doesn’t improve within a specific period of time.
A couple of bits of advice: Write one separate letter to each bureau for each disputed item. For example, if you have five derogatory items on your report, that were reported to all three bureaus, then you should write fifteen letters. This way you can track the progress of each dispute, plus it guarantees that the credit agency will pay individual attention to each one. Give them more paperwork to process and they will be that much more backlogged to meet their thirty-day deadline.
And one final bit of advice: The Fair Credit Reporting Act also allows the bureaus to disregard your dispute if it s frivolous in nature. In other words, if you do something to cause them to suspect that you are just filing disputes that you know are more than likely to be accurate, just for the sake of flooding them with requests, then they can disregard your inquiry and not take it seriously. Therefore, be careful not to do things like repeatedly dispute the same item over and over again if it keeps on getting verified. The law was passed to protect the legitimate needs of consumers against credit fraud or data entry errors.
Todd
