Free Credit Report (not .com)
Unlike the “free credit reports (if you sign up for our $$$ credit monitoring service, sucka!)” provider that you see ads for plastered all over TV, the real place to get your free yearly credit reports as mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act is www.annualcreditreport.com. Check out the Wikipedia article for more details. I just ran mine, and you have to dodge a few credit monitoring ads when you are viewing your report at each of the three providers, but overall it was quick and relatively pain-free. It is definitely a good idea to check at least once a year to make sure nobody is stealing your credit identity and the credit reporting providers haven’t goofed up.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Hey Bill,
Its a good habit to get into (checking your credit report). I’ve kinda “used the system” so that I can check it 3 times a year (every 4 mos). Simply since there are 3 credit reporting agencies, experian, Trans Union, and equifax. Simply only check 1 of them at a time. Four months later you can check the next one. Personally, I’ve never seen the data from any of them differ, so from a monitoring point of view, it works for me. I’ve heard stories of people who’ve had different results though, regarding errors found in the reports. If you suspect something is wrong, perhaps its good to also look at others at the same time. Just thought I’d share my methods.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Thanks Gerrit, that sounds like a smart strategy.