Free Credit Reports
A FREE CREDIT REPORT IS YOUR RIGHT BY LAW
Everyone has seen it on the Web. Get your “Free Credit Report! Instantly!” And with a click of a mouse you get sucked in and scammed by one of the many credit report “impostors” that have infested cyberspace.
There are REAL ways to get a genuinely free copy of your credit report. The correct name for your “credit report” is a “credit file disclosure”. We know of three ways to obtain your report without all the twists and turns of temporary memberships, putting up a credit card, canceling a service before your trial runs out … or the dozens of other cyber-hype traps.
As a result of the FTC's final ruling under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act everyone can access a free credit report. The three major agencies for credit reporting are required to provide upon request a free copy of a credit report at least once every 12 months to all consumers from a centralized access source.
Method No. 1 CALL
If you are concerned about protecting your private information and bank account info by using the online method, you can call the toll free phone number to request your free credit report copy by dialing The Annual Credit Report Request Service at: 1-877-322-8228.
Method No. 2 ONLINE
Do be careful with this access and only enter the exact address into your browser address bar. If you don’t get the Web address exactly right or you forget the address and think you can find it through a search for terms on the Internet under phrases like “free credit report” or “annual credit report” … You will most likely link to one of the “impostors”. You can obtain your free credit report information online at annualcreditreport.com. Remember to go only to that site. You will be required to confirm your identity in a simple process and your report will be mailed to you. It does arrive quickly. At the Web site you will find a U.S. Map that will tell you if the area you live in has access established as yet. The required free annual report availability has been set to “rollout” schedules based on the federal laws that mandate the reports be provided all consumers. The dates of availability are there and easy to see. The Eastern States and U.S. territories are the only sections not yet completed, but are set by federal laws to be available by September 1, 2005 if not yet up.
Method No. 3 POSTAL MAIL
The last but not least method is that you can obtain your report information by regular mail service. You are required to complete a form that you must send in with your request. This method does take a little longer. But if you aren’t an avid user of computers and you aren’t one for using the phone unless it is an emergency, then this may be the method best suited for you. You can get the request form online and then mail it to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Remember, to be sure you go to only the site named here. And don’t even let down your guard then. Even the “official” government-mandated and authorized free report site can blur and confuse the sharpest of minds with how they interchange the use of words in explanation of what services are “free” and what services are “available at a cost”.
How could that be you ask? Well there are dozens of sites out there on the world wide web that are operated by Experian, Equifax and TransUnion (the Big 3) bureaus (who cooperatively run the one authorized site), that charge for the very same service that the government-mandated site offers for free! The Big 3 often use names other than their own on websites they own that charge for the “free report”. Beware of ConsumerInfo.com … it is the Big 3 themselves, doing what they do best, which is to make money!
Remember, this is a government-mandated service, not one that the bureaus volunteered to do. In fact, consumer advocacy investigations of fraudulent, deceptive and misspelled domains on the Web identified 96 KNOWN misspelled domains for credit reports of which 28 of them belong to Experian and other credit services (like MyFico). This is a deliberate effort to prey on and exploit consumer’s typing errors in web address entries to take the consumer to a site with services you have to pay for rather than getting to the authorized site for your report at no cost.
Stay on Your Toes
If you are careful enough to get to the “real” free credit report Web site, you must remain alert! Right on the home page you will be directed to first fill in some personal information. You then continue to the next page. There, you are given the choice of selecting one of the Big 3 to order your report from. But remember, you are entitled to one free report from EACH of the Big 3 every 12 months! So order all three at once, or realize that you can return later and order the next one from the bureaus you didn’t get a report from your first time.
There are pros and cons to obtaining all three at once so that you can compare the information contained on all reports (not all creditors use all three bureaus); and then you may want to keep one report in “reserve” so you can use it as an “update” after you have viewed your report to see if corrections you have worked on have been done, or how your score is doing. Remember though, the one you keep in reserve may not have the creditors or accounts listed on it that the reports you received did.
If you choose TransUnion, for example, it requires you to register to get your free report and asks for an e-mail address. Go slow and only click on links that you clearly understand and want. There are a few confusing menus that the site uses to “offer” the free credit report.
Watch out for TransUnion’s auto-opt in to sign you up for its “newsletter” as you order their report of your file. If you “accept” this newsletter, TransUnion will share all of your credit and personal information with “partners” (which for the most part are business entities that purchase your information for sales reasons). One of the biggest draw back in using the Internet option is that for the most part when you go through the process of that method, you will be prompted to “accept” multiple different privacy policies and there are also buried mandatory arbitration agreements that would prevent you from taking or filing a complaint and legal case against the credit bureau to court.
These are the primary reasons that our preferred and recommended method of obtaining your free credit report is to use the toll-free telephone number to order the reports you want. You will avoid the various dips, curves and hazards of the “web” these companies have woven on the Web.
Looking Out for Number One
- Be sure that the site you are at is secure if you are using the online option. Secure sites will have a web address that begins with https:// instead of just http://. The “added” “s” denotes the site is secured.
- Free if free is free. Free does not mean “for a limited time”, or if you do something else first or remember to do something in addition to what you are doing now, later. If you have to give your checking or credit card information, flat out it means you are going to pay for a charge or multiple charges for continuing services.
- The authorized site is not advertised via email offers. So don’t think the mail you get talking about it is going to help you get there. It won’t.
- Remember to protect your privacy and ask that only the last four digits of your Social Security number be displayed on the credit file disclosures (credit reports) that will be mailed to you.
- You are not required and should not be asked to provide your email address in order to obtain a federal government mandated free credit report. If you are asked you are going to be spammed!
- Stay on the look out for the “pre-checked” offerings as you process your information on line. There are several non-invasive and unnoticeable check boxes that are preset for your agreement to be included in marketing and other type sales and lead generation offers unless you “unclick” the box to decline.
- Immediately dispute any errors that you find on your reports. Also, often reports will carry the same creditor or account information several times in duplicate listings. You have the right to have duplicate entries removed immediately, even if you don’t dispute the account or its reported status. This includes (by example) multiple listings of the same medical bill that didn’t get paid, under several collection agencies names. Only the most recent listing is correct. Collection agencies sell and resell delinquent accounts. But only the current owner of the account can list the account status. All others are outdated information and can be removed as a duplicate.
- Examine the report to make sure that the addresses listed on you file, as your current and prior residence(s) is accurate. Many times a person’s old employer’s address will be listed if for some reason you received certain mail there (by example).
One Final Reminder
In the U.S. federal law continues to allow you to receive a free credit report at any time if:
1. You were denied credit
2. You were denied insurance
3. You were denied a job
4. If you are on welfare
5. If you are unemployed and seeking employment
6. If your report is inaccurate due to fraud
Some Ongoing Efforts of Interest
There are several state and consumer advocacy groups that are currently seeking additional rights for the consumer regarding credit reports. We feel some of these requests for further or “complete” action from the Federal Government on this issue are of significant merit and encourage everyone to request that your local legislator be involved or to get involved yourself through petition efforts and writing letters.
Change does happen when the many unite into the power which is invincible …. The Power of One.
Here are a couple of specific initiatives that are currently in Washington through various efforts to have these areas enacted within the coming year as additional provisions of the new Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act):
1. Consumers would have the right to freeze access to their credit report.
2. To ban the use of credit reports and credit scores for homeowner and auto insurance decisions.
3. To require police departments to take complaints from identity theft victims.
Encourage your State Legislators to finish the job that Congress has started!
