Credit Score - Free Annual Credit Reports
Take Advantage A Yearly Free Credit Report
First off, all Americans should understand that they are entitled to a free credit report once a year. This became law in January of 2006. If for any reason you have been denied a loan, you should get a free credit report right away. Then you will be able to see for yourself why you where denied the auto financing, home mortgage, or debt consolidation.
Whatever you do, don’t assume the bank or the credit reporting company(s) (Fair Isacc, Equifax, Experian, and Trans-Union), have accurate information regarding your credit history, purchasing history, or payment history. It’s been proven in studies that credit rating information is flawed almost 80% of the time. That is an ugly calculation and percentage for sure. In many cases, the information and calculation made on your personal credit rating is EXTREMELY flawed - so get your credit report and dispute as much as you possibly can. You can actually reverse much of the data from your purchases, payments, and recent bank account and credit card account history.
Why We Can Now Get A Free Credit Report
Prior to 01/01/06, Americans could not procure a free credit report from Equifax, Experian or Trans-Union. Ridiculous right. We should all have access to see what the “big brothers” are jotting down regarding our finances, spending, and consumer activity. The United States congress passed a bill in early 2006 that made it law for the credit bureaus to expunge your data when you request it. Furthermore, you can look into your local state laws regarding your personal financial records. This varies from state to state of course.
A Free Credit Report Is Not The Same As A Free Credit Score
The bad news is that Americans are not entitled to a free copy of their credit score (or FICO score). A FICO score is created and provided by The Fair Isaac Company which not really a credit bureau - they are a private company that uses a sophisticated database for calculating the credit scores of consumers around the world. (only a handful of countries use the Fair Isacc service) The financial data used for the calculation of your FICO score is provided by the credit bureaus such as Equifax, Experian, and Trans-Union. You can pay to find out what your credit score if you like. Your humble narrator pays for a credit score once a year.
How To Dispute Your Credit Reports
The first thing you need to do if you ever hope to dispute your credit reports is have your records, documents, receipts, bank statements, cancelled checks, etc. Basically, keep every document so you can use that as prove you made payments on time, and in full. Have all your Visa, Discover Card, Diners Club Card, American Express, Esso (fuel) Cards, and Mastercard statements on hand so you can prove what you did, and did not buy. If you have accurate records, you will be able to dispute their numbers and prove that your credit report is flawed, and in need of an amendment.
Protecting Yourself And Your Credit Rating By Using Free Credit Reports
In this brave new world we live in, we now have to be careful that our credit card information (or any personal information) does not fall into “shady hands”. At the World Of Financing we’ve seen many people apply for an auto loan or home loan only to find out their credit rating is damaged. When they look into their recorded credit data, it shows them being delinquent on various payments on various credit cards that they had never even used. This is why the WOF recommends the use of only 1 or 2 credit cards. The less plastic you carry or have, the easier it is to keep track of your purchases and payments. If you periodically request your free credit reports, you can stay on top of your data, and make sure that scammers have not swiped your credit card(s) through a reader, and made hay with your ignorance.
Safely Getting Your Free Annual Credit Report
Try and stay away from scammer web sites that claim to give free credit reports, when all they want to do is get your personal information. You can register at Free Annual Credit Report which is the site created due to the FTC mandate, and what is know as the FACT ACT. This site is the official site for Americans to procure their credit reports once a year for free. As a matter of fact, you cannot access this site on a computer that is not using an IP within the United States. Go there and register yourself as a new user. Once you have registered and you’ve logged in, you can procure a credit report from each of the three main credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Trans-Union). Be sure to have all of your pertinent financial information available, as well as some of your personal identification data.
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