Thursday, May 19, 2011

How To Get A Free Credit Report

The 2003 Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act states that each American citizen has the right to obtain one free credit report annually. This news should please people who ask the question how to get a free credit report. You should be aware though, that these are not sent out automatically and you will therefore have to request them personally.

You are able to access this in one of three ways. You can go to a website and download it for free from the website. You can call a phone number and complete a form and then post it.As there are three credit bureaus, you are effectively able to get 3 reports every year.

It might be a good idea to stagger the reports and request them at different times of the year. If you do not wish to pay for it, then order it from a centralized agency. If you go directly to the agency, you will have to pay a fee.

It's unbelievable how many fraudulent domains there are out there, so be careful to not get scammed. These websites charge a fee when it is not necessary for you to pay anything. This information can be very useful if you have been informed that you cannot get a job or get insured. You might also be applying for unemployment.

You will be able to see your history as it pertains to any loan payments that you have made on your mortgage, credit cards and personal loans. Lenders are able to use this information to assess whether you are a suitable risk for them. Credit scores, however are not documented on these reports.

You can use this information to help organize your finances. If you wish to access credit it is imperative that this report is clean. When you apply for credit, you will be able to access more cash with a minimum of fuss. When you have this report, you should scrutinize it carefully to see that there are no errors on the document. You do not want to be penalized due to no fault of your own.

By the time you finish reading this, you might be quite shocked to see that there is information on the document that does not apply to you. Identity theft is rife and it is very possible that there will be accounts on the report that do not belong to you. This is why you must know all the accounts that you have. If there are any accounts that do not belong to you, then you need to approach the relevant stores and advise them of this. Before applying for loans, you must have this incorrect information removed from the document.

Make no mistake about it, you do need to know how to get a free credit report, but what to do with it is equally important. You can also use this information to see which debt should be paid off first. Many people like to get rid of high interest debt first, while others prefer to pay of the lowest outstanding amounts first.