Pay Dirt For Your Instant Credit Report |
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Your instant credit report is a kind of license in getting a loan and fulfilling your dream of buying a new house or a new car. In your instant credit report, you can see your credit rating that determines your creditworthiness. In a word, your instant credit report is a synopsis of your entire credit activities. How you paid your bills in the past, whether you were regular on your payments, the amount of your present outstanding debts--all can be tracked from your instant credit report. Instant credit report can also give you a hint of any fraudulent activity that may be operated upon your credit. Therefore, you need to check your instant credit report on a regular basis. In recent years, identity thefts have risen dramatically. The crime of identity theft occurs when someone, without your knowledge, acquires a piece of your personal information and uses it to commit fraud. An identity thief, armed with just a few pieces of information--credit card number, social security number, driver's license number, date of birth etc. might open an account in your name, change the mailing address, then run up changes on the account. Even though you check your instant credit report, you may not get a complete picture about this kind of fraudulent activity. Let us take an example. David Stains, a resident of Michigan and a doctor by profession used to check his instant credit report on the website of a local credit-reporting agency. But he was unlucky. His credit information was blended with that of an unsavory character who happened to have a similar name. Eventually, it took him ten months and $300 to clean up the mess. And last time he checked his Instant Credit Report, his score was still painfully low. But those days are gone now. Today there are very good news for people like David and of course for all of us. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act), a revision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act says that the three major credit-reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are required to provide consumers, a free instant credit report once every 12 months from a centralized source upon their request. This centralized source includes a Web site, a toll-free telephone number and a postal address. The website is annualcreditreport.com. This website is the only authorized source for consumers to access their free instant credit report online. You can also collect your free credit report by calling on the toll free no 877-322-8228 or by writing to the address, Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA, 30348-5281. To apply for your free instant credit report, you need to provide some of your personal information like: your name, your address, social security numbers, date of birth, your spouse's name, driver's license number etc. If you have moved in the last two years, you must provide your previous address also. Besides, the credit-reporting agencies may ask you other information like your current monthly mortgage payment to confirm your identity. It's always a better idea to check your instant credit report regularly. If you find any kind of error on your report, you should immediately inform the credit-reporting agencies. They would contact your creditors and if they find any error, they would correct it quickly. And of course, a corrected version of your report would be dispatched to you by mail or online. Apart from Michigan, there are some other states like Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin where free instant credit report are already available from March 1, 2005. On June 1, 2005, the residents of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas would get their reports for free. The rest have to wait until September1, 2005. |
