The Scoop on Credit Reports
By Michele Blandino
By September 1, 2005 residents of every state in the U.S. will have free access to their credit history.
Thanks to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act), consumers can request and receive one free credit report every year from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. This means that each year, you will have three different opportunities to review your credit report.
In addition to allowing you regular access to your credit report, the FACT Act has made it easier for you to obtain the information. Prior to the enactment of the FACT Act, it was necessary to telephone or write to the consumer credit reporting companies to receive your report; under the current laws, in most cases you can download your report from a secure web site.
Monitoring is Important
Why has keeping track of your credit history become so important? In a word: Internet. With the amount of personal information that travels through cyberspace each day, the likelihood of a person becoming victimized by identity theft has increased exponentially. And, simply by obtaining your name and social security number, a criminal can open a credit card account in your name and run up thousands of dollars of charges, which, of course, they don’t pay for. These unpaid charges eventually make their way to your credit report where they may remain undetected by you until it comes time to buy a car or apply for a mortgage. And to make a bad situation even worse, when you finally do discover what has happened, it will be up to you to do the legwork to untangle the whole mess.
How to Protect Yourself
If you suspect you have been made the victim of an identity crime, there are a few things you should do in order to minimize the damage. The first thing you should do is to contact one of the three consumer credit reporting companies listed above and request that a “fraud alert” be placed on your file. This alert will prevent any additional accounts from being opened in your name without your specific permission.
It is also recommended that rather than ordering all three reports at the same time, you order one every four months. This will help you to more quickly identify discrepancies and hopefully, minimize the damage. When you receive your report, you should look for unfamiliar accounts as well as evidence of loans you did not execute. If you maintain several credit accounts, it may be helpful for you to keep a list of the various account numbers so that you can compare it to those appearing on the report.
For More Information:
To learn more about the importance of monitoring your credit history, you can visit AnnualCreditReport.com.
You can also visit the web sites of the three consumer credit reporting companies:
