How can I acquire my free annual credit report?
You can get your free annual credit report by applying for it online at www.annualcreditreport.com,
or you can call them on the phone at 877-322-8228. You can also fill out an Annual Credit Report Request
and mail it to the Annual Credit Report Request Service, which is located at P.O. Box 105281 in
Atlanta, Georgia 30348-5281.
What things should I watch out for?
Be extra careful about impostor sites. When you apply for your free annual credit report, caution
is important. The Federal Trade Commission warns that you should be very careful in typing the site’s
name on your internet browser, as many impostor sites abound on the internet. Instead of copying and
pasting, type annualcreditreport.com on your URL.
The World Privacy Forum reported in 2005 that:
1. There are at least 233 domains whose names are close to, or are identical to annualcreditreport.com.
2. 112 of the impostor domains are live sites and actively redirecting consumers away from
annualcreditreport.com’s site.
3. 7 of the live impostor sites posted a privacy policy.
4. 21 of the impostor sites gave some form of contact information such as an online Web form or
email address.
5. Many of the impostor domains redirected consumers to the credit bureaus instead of the official
annualcreditreport.com site. The impostor domains use “pay per click” or affiliate marketing schemes,
and are paid every time a consumer clicks on the link on their site.
6. 4 of the impostor domains redirected consumers to a commercial data broker named Intelius.
If you have been clicking on those impostor sites offering free annual credit report without
realizing that they’re not the real deal, you may have given out your credit card information or been
charged unknowingly. It is scary, but the probability is very high.
How can I protect myself from impostor sites?
It is quite easy to be duped by impostor sites. Many times when we are surfing the internet, we just
automatically click on a link without really thinking first.
Here are some precautionary measures that the Federal Trade Commission advises anyone surfing on
the internet should take:
1. If you receive an email with an offer for a free annual credit report, you should not respond to it.
Call the company to check if it is genuine or better yet, visit a website that you know is real. Do not click on any links under any circumstances.
Usually links embeded in emails are fraud links.
2. Treat emails offering free credit reports as suspicious, especially if they are originating from a
domain that ends in anything besides .com.
3. Double-check the company’s name for misspellings. A misspelled variation of a legal company is likely
to be an impostor.
4. Note if the link to the company’s website is taking you to where it is promising to take you or it is redirecting you to another website.
5. Today it is really easy to check the owner of a website. There are so many services which you can use to find out if the owner's information is sound and legitimate.
6. You should research about the company and make sure that it is a legitimate company with legitimate address and telephone number.
7. A legitimate site, once you make a request for your credit report, will ask for additional information
to verify your identity.
8. Usually legitimate andn secure websites an adress starting with https and also have a “lock” button on the bnottom of the browser.
9. If you ordered a credit report, check your mailbox for it. Check your credit card statements to see
if there are any unauthorized charges on your credit card.
10. You can go to www.consumer.gov/idtheft to find more information about identity thieves and how to protect
yourself against it.
11. Do not give out your personal information to any website. If a site asks for it just close the page on your browser.
Your credit report is as valuable as your wallet. It is important that you protect your personal
information, especially when applying for your free annual credit report on the internet. Make sure that
you are applying for your free credit report on the correct site, and not on an impostor site.
What is in my credit report?
Every time you make a purchase through your credit card or inquire/apply for a new one, the information
about your transaction goes into your credit report. Even when you make inquiries – and these are merely
inquiries, not yet applications – about mortgage loans, for instance, that inquiry goes into your credit
report. It is actually to your benefit if you know what kind of information your credit report contains,
as well as how you are doing in terms of credit standing.
Your annual credit report will contain the following information:
1. Your personal information – This includes your name, your address (both current and previous), your
telephone number, your birth date, your current and previous employers, your Social Security Number, and
even the name of your spouse.
2. Your credit history – This section includes information on your bill payments with banks, mortgage
companies, retail stores, finance companies, and any other company that has granted you credit. It also
includes information about your credit cards, as well as when you opened each account, what type of account
it is, what your monthly payment is, how much credit it includes, and how much your loan is. If your loan
has been paid off or you closed the account, the information is indicated there as well. Any missed or late
payments will appear in this section. This section of your credit report will also indicate whether you
were prompt or delinquent in making your credit payments.
3. Your public records – This section shows information about any court judgments or tax liens against
you, as well as bankruptcies if you had any.
4. Report inquiries – If any credit granter requested your report, the information will appear in this
section. Names of entities that were authorized to view your credit report will appear here, as well as
companies that received your name and address in order to give you credit. This means those companies
offering “pre-approved” credit cards, insurance, or any other products whose criteria you met and who
have sent you offer letters.
5. Dispute statements – If you have ever disputed any credit card billing or charge, the information
will appear here.
Credit reports are very comprehensive, but there are still some kinds of information that do not
go into your report, such as your bank account balances, your race, the state of your health, your criminal
records if any, your income, driving records, and your religion.
Why do I need my credit report?
Your credit report says a lot about you and your spending habits and affects your chances of getting
more credit. If you are having money problems and are constantly behind on your payments, it is even more
important that you get a copy of your annual credit report, study it, and try to raise your credit rating.
It is also possible that there may be information missing from your credit report that could be helpful in
boosting your fico score, or there may be information in it that does not belong to you but to another
person. As a rule, you should check your credit report regularly and have any inaccurate information
corrected.
What additional information would help me understand my free annual credit report?
In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission amended the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003
(FACTA) to allow consumers to get a free annual credit report. It required the nation’s three major
credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – to provide consumers with a free annual credit report,
by request, once every twelve months.
The U.S. is largely a credit economy. People buy gas, do their supermarket shopping, buy a home
or car, and do just about everything through credit. The U.S. Federal Reserve says that in 2007 the total
US consumer debt reached $2.46 trillion, up from $2.398 trillion of the previous year. Visa Card statistics
show that there are more than 1 billion Visa cards worldwide, and more than 450 million of these are in
the U.S. What is surprising is that many Americans do not really pay close attention to their credit report,
where every credit transaction the consumer makes is recorded.
Even if you do not need further credit, the annual credit report is something that employers
look at when considering people for a job, a promotion, retention or reassignment. Besides the credit
report giving a good picture of the person’s payment habits, for employers it is a good indication of
financial honesty and integrity.
We encourage you to check out our free annual credit report articles section to read and learn more about this topic.
