Consumer advocates tell us that we should check what's in our credit reports at least once a year but many people don't. In this error of identify theft, it is especially important to regularly view one's credit reports. This is vital to your financial success as well as your safety. Now you can get a free credit report up to three times a year by following the instructions below. And, it's truly free courtesy on the US Government - not one of those ripoffs where you have to sign up for an annual "credit monitoring service."
Here's what you need to know:
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT) was recently enacted by the US Government. This allows all United States residents to obtain one free credit report per year from each credit reporting agency. The FACT Act is being phased in across the country with different starting dates depending upon which state you live in. It is currently available in many states, and by Sept. 1, 2005, it will be available in all states. You can make your request for a free report entirely on the Internet or by toll-free phone number or by mail as follows:
Internet: http://www.annualcreditreport.com
Phone: (877) 322-8228
Mail: Annual Credit Report, Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
The important thing to remember is that there are three main credit reporting services listed below, and that you are entitled to a free report from each service for each year. The three services are:
When you make a request by one of the methods listed above, you will be asked which reporting service you want to use. To get the most value out of your free reports, we suggest that you a report from a different service about four months apart. That way you get your three free reports at different times of the year which enables you to better monitor you credit. For example:
When you request your report, you will be asked for you social security number plus some security questions. These questions are designed to prevent imposters from obtaining your credit reports. Be prepared to answer questions like your mother's maiden name, former addresses where you have lived, and credit card numbers. For example, you may the told that your records show you have a credit card from CitiBank and ask "what is that number?" These are perfectly legitimate questions to narrow down the possiblity of a fradulent request. By the way, some of the questions are tricky. A staff member was told that the records showed a home mortgage and gave a list of four mortage companies followed by "None of these" as possibilities. In fact he had no home mortage so he selected "None of these", and that was accepted as the correct answer.
One caution - the website address listed above is the only legitimate URL for the goverment required free credit reports. When you type in in, but sure that you get it exactly right, and when you arrive at that site, be sure the URL shown in your browser is the one you typed. Or, just click the URL above. This caveat is because there are surely scam artists who will soon be creating fake sites with similar URLs hoping that someone will type in the wrong address and give out their credit information to a rogue site.
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