Free Instant Credit Reports – Score

Ken Marlborough asked:




Checking your credit report is an efficient tool in battling identity theft. You can order a free credit report once every twelve months from any of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies.

All the information available regarding your credit history like your address, transaction profile and any government offenses are listed in the credit report. Consumer companies nationwide sell your credit report to creditors, insurance companies, possible recruitment agencies and other businesses that need to assess your request for, employment, insurance, credit, or renting. That’s why it is helpful to make sure the information on your report is accurate, complete and up-to-date before you apply for a loan.

You can visit a credit report site to get your free report online. Sites can also offer a toll-free number to order their free annual credit reports, or you can download a form and send it to their website.

Consumers can order all three reports at the same time, or they can stagger their requests over a period of a year. Consumers are eligible to order a free credit report any time. They are not required to submit their request within a certain period of time.

Banks will remind you if they are giving you credit at a higher interest based on your credit score and warn you if they have divulged any negative information about you in other credit agencies.

Scrutinizing your own credit report once a year should be a habit that you do frequently, especially with the rise of identity theft related crimes. Be aware of other sites that claim to provide free credit reports and any e-mails that claim to be from a consumer reporting agency. Seeing if it’s free has its own warning sign, so keep this in mind as numerous fraud schemes pop up.

Elizabeth

Clara Ghomes asked:




Credit reports of an individual are a record of all his/her past lending transactions such as borrowing money, repayments, information regarding late payments (if any) and bankruptcy. The credit rating or score is based on the credit report of an individual. These ratings help in determining the ease and difficulty with which a person would (or won’t) get credit from credit card companies, banks or any other creditors.

The US laws have allowed every person to request for a free copy of their credit report every year. It’s very beneficial to get a free report, but the opportunity could get wasted if one doesn’t know how to read them. It also could be frustrating if a person doesn’t have any clue regarding how to read or understand their credit report. Nowadays, these reports are many important with the number of identity thefts which are on a rise and regular checking of reports helps a person in dealing with any issues in the report.

A person can request his/her copy of free report from any of the credit bureaus- namely TransUnion, Equifax and Experian (or TRW). One can also go online to get a copy of their financial records. One should make a habit of checking their report every year. Also, the credit bureaus should be contacted in case of any occurrence of incorrect information in an individual’s report.

After receiving the copy, one should sit down and review the report slowly and carefully. Each line of the report should be analyzed to get all the information regarding the debts. Many documents also provide ‘key’ with which one can understand the meaning of the symbols and codes used in the report. Also, a copy of the report should be faxed to the accountant for identification of any tax implications.

Any information which doesn’t make any sense should be highlighted. One should remind themselves to search online for explanation regarding the unclarified information. Friends with adequate knowledge regarding this report can be contacted for advice. One can also try free credit counselling agencies if there is still problem in analyzing the report, why it exists and the information on the report. Also, one should immediately investigate anything that doesn’t look familiar. The information should be reviewed on a monthly basis.

There are also companies which offer services of checking credit reports and confirming information for a fee. But, going online to request free such report can help in viewing the information for free. Also, these reports don’t mention the credit rating of an individual; they just provide all the list of accounts to check that the information on the report is true and contains no errors.

Harold