Home > Free Credit Report > Free Credit Reports Now Available From The FTC
Free Credit Reports Now Available From The FTC |
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US residents can now get copies of their free credit report from the three major credit report bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, thanks to a new website www.annualcreditreport.com by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The move was a part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act passed last December, to help in combating the growing threat of identity theft. To get the free credit report, the reports need to be ordered from the FTC site, as ordering directly from any of the credit report agencies' sites will incur a fee. The Internet has several websites currently offering free credit report but they require a credit card to be put on file in the form of a free trial membership of their credit report monitoring service. These reports are free only if you remember to cancel the trial membership and forgetting to do so can be costly. The new FTC site is free and has no credit card requirement. A request for free credit report requires your name, address, Social Security number and date of birth. The credit bureaus may also require more information to confirm identity like your current monthly mortgage payment. Free credit report can also be ordered through a call to 877-322-8228 (toll-free) or mail from Annual Credit Report Request Service, PO Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Currently the free credit report is not available to all US residents. Over the next year they are being phased in region-wise to avoid overwhelming the system. Currently, residents of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming can get the free credit report. Midwest residents need to wait till March for their free credit report, South residents till June and East residents till September. Rather than order free credit report from all three credit report agencies together, it may be better to stagger them to be able to receive one every 4 months. Doing so, will enable you to observe the changes over time on your credit report and checking for correction of mistakes. You will then also be more likely to notice any attempted identity theft sooner. However when considering large purchases like a home and car for which your credit score will determine your eligibility, all three may be required quickly. This enables you to tackle any potential problems at the earliest. On receiving your free credit report, review each carefully. As the three agencies handle information in millions every year, some estimates have errors in as many as half of the credit reports and a major error in every one in four. By ensuring the accuracy of all the information in your report, you can be sure of getting the best rates from credit agencies in the future. With credit reports now being free of charge, you might as well request them every year. Monitoring your free credit report is among the most effective means of protection from identity theft apart from making sure that all the information being accessed by your creditors is accurate. For clean credit reports, notify the credit-reporting agency in writing about the information you find inaccurate in your free credit report. Copies, and not originals of documents to support your claim should be included. Apart from your complete name and address, you need to be very clear in identifying the items in your report being disputed, present facts and explain the reasons for disputing the information for deletion or correction. Copies of your dispute letter must always be kept. Advance checking on the accuracy of information in your free credit report can speed up the credit-granting process and clean credit is very necessary. Businesses evaluate your application on the basis of this information for credit, insurance, employment and other services approved by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Therefore it is of utmost importance that the information in your credit report is complete and accurate. |
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