Free Credit Report

We all need to obtain a Free Credit Report at a minimum of once every year. Reviewing your Free Credit Report and knowing your Credit Score helps you to be in charge of your credit situation as well as find any errors or signs possible identity theft as soon as possible. You are able, by law, to obtain one Free Credit Report each year.

Looking on the Internet, you will find many sites offering you a Free Credit Report and Score Online. There are many things to take into consideration before signing up with any of these services. Some so called Free Credit Report sites found Online are scams! Other Free Credit Report Agencies while not scams, will require you to sign up for some type of free trial program or offer that you need to remember to cancel or end up paying a fee for the continued service. Still other Free Credit Report and Score web sites will end up selling your e-mail address and home address to others who will send you spam e-mails and junk mail to your home. As you can see, in many cases, that Free Credit Report isn’t really free at all!

If you really want to get your Credit Report “Online”, you may want to try to find a service that charges a small fee. There are many legitimate sites to obtain your Credit Report safely. Do a little checking and find the one that suits your requirements.

If you are not in a real rush to get your Free Credit Report and don’t necessarily need to get it Online, the best thing to do is to order it via regular mail. Starting in September of 2005, Americans are able to request from Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union, a Free Credit Report once every year. To do this, you will need to go to www.ftc.gov/credit and print the Annual Credit Report Request Form, fill one out and mail it to Annual Credit Report Request Service PO Box 105281 Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Once received, you can expect to get your Free Credit Report back in the mail within 15 business days. While this way takes a while longer, you can rest assured that all of your personal information remains personal!

This article was written by Kriss Standke who is an accomplished Webmaster and publisher of Credit Report Score Free, Free Credit Report Today, as well as Free Credit Report Spot where he provides detailed and informative articles, tips, and advice on Free Credit Reports and how to get yours.

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Every consumer in America has the right to a free credit report once every year by law as of September 2005. But since that law has passed there has been nothing but confusion.

The web sites that say they are offering this so called free credit report, are asking us to give them our credit card information. Does that sound like a free credit report to you?

You may have even given your credit card number to these companies to sign up for a thirty day trial for a credit service that has almost nothing to do with getting your free credit report.

In all fairness, you can cancel this service after thirty days. But how many people do you think forget and end up with monthly or even annual credit card charges?

In fact, these companies are counting on you forgetting about the thirty day trial and charging that fee on your credit card. But if the law says you get a free report, what’s the deal?

A lot of people are confused about these free credit reports because of how some companies are marketing the free credit report. Hopefully, this information will clear a few things up for you.

For people who just want the bottom line, a free credit report is available at www.AnnualCreditReport.com and this is the only official site that helps consumers to obtain their annual free credit report.

This site’s security protocols are excellent with physical and technological security and encryption. That’s important for identity theft purposes because the information on your credit report should be seen by your eyes only.

So if this site is readily available and anyone can get a free credit report once a year, what’s the catch? Here is the catch: the credit report you get from www.AnnualCreditReport.com does not have any credit scores.

Now you may be asking, “Then what good is getting this free credit report without a credit score?” There are a few good reasons why you may want to look at your credit report even without a credit score.

Did you know that more than forty percent of all credit reports have errors? If you spot these errors, you can get them cleared up before it affects your credit score. If you contact a credit bureau about an error, they have to clear it up or remove it after thirty days by law.

If you monitor and review your credit report, you can check to be sure that you are not a victim of identity theft. If someone takes over your accounts and charges up thousands of dollars in debt, they can destroy your credit score in a matter of hours.

These are just a couple of good reasons why you want to get your free credit report once a year and inspect it just to be sure everything looks like it should. You can get your free credit report online at www.AnnualCreditReport.com or by phone or through the mail.

So where do you get your credit score from? This is where the confusion comes in and here is the answer. The law Congress passed did not say anything about a credit score just one free credit report a year per consumer.

You have to pay a service to get your credit score and some companies are confusing people with the way they are marketing this. They offer you a free credit report and score and many consumers believe it’s their annual free credit report.

But if you have to sign up for a credit service they offer for a 30 day trial period, does that sound free? What these companies are counting on is you forgetting about the 30 day trial and charging a fee on your credit card once that trial period is over.

It’s in the fine print, but how many people actually read that. So here is a good common sense rule of thumb. Any time you have to give your credit card information, ask yourself, “is this really free?”

Many of you probably know this is happening because you have been trapped with this kind of marketing tactic. But for those of you that just want your annual free credit report, you can at least be aware as to what is really going on and have a no nonsense way to get it.

Copyright © 2006 Credit-Repair-Facts.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is supplied by Credit Repair Facts.com where you will find credit information, debt elimination programs and informative facts that give you the knowledge to correct your own credit and credit report. For more credit related articles like these go to: Credit and Debt Articles

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Thinking of buying a new home or automobile? Before you shop, make sure you take a look at your credit report. You can be assured that your lender will. It is also important to keep up with the contents of your personal credit reports to reduce the likelihood of identity theft and to fix any errors that show up on your report as soon as possible. You can go to any of the 3 credit reporting agencies and receive a copy of your credit report for a fee. However, there are also a number of free ways to receive a copy of your credit report.

Receive a free credit report from one of the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion.

First, there are many websites that will offer you free copies of your credit report. This is one area where the Federal Government has actually helped consumers out. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 (FACTA) added new sections to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act that help consumers fight the growing crime of identity theft. As a result of this act, the three large credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have created a website called www.annualcreditreport.com where consumers can sign up to receive a free copy of their credit report from all 3 agencies once a year.

Receive a free credit report from an online website.

Another way to receive your report for free online is to use one of the many websites that advertise providing you with a free copy of your credit report. Usually in exchange for this free service, you are also entitled to receive a barrage of spam email and marketing materials. In light of the fact that the large agencies have banded together and now offer their own method to receive a free annual credit report, this method is not recommended.

Receive a free credit report if you have been denied credit.

There are also two other ways to receive a free copy of your credit report. Any consumer that is denied credit for any reason can request a free copy of their credit report from the agency that provided the report. Credit bureaus also provide free copies of your credit report under other circumstances. You are entitled to one report free of charge per year if you certify in writing that: you are unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days, you are on welfare, or your report is inaccurate because of fraud.

Try using one of ABC Loan Guide’s
Recommended Sources For a Free Credit Report Online.

With all of these tools at your fingertips, it should be easy for you to keep up with your credit report, and best of all it’s FREE!

View our recommended companies for
Credit Help Online. Also, view our recommended sources for Bad Credit Credit Repair.

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