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U.S. Govt. Stipulates Free Annual Credit Reports
alue writes "Under the terms of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, passed last year, and amid growing concerns over privacy and disclosure of sensitive financial data, the three leading credit reporting agencies must provide consumers with a free summary once a year of all credit information on file for that person. Consumers in 13 Western states will be able to grab free online copies of their credit reports starting Wednesday."
Yes. I recently just got mine (paid for it) In addition to my mortgage being on there, which shows I've never been late in paying and such, there was a delinquint account. I was like WTF? Since over the last few years I've tried to be REALLY good about bills and credit and such. Turns out, I owed $1.81 (yes, one dollar and eighty one cents) to my former gas company, which is very likely to be that when I paid my final bill to them before I moved 2 years ago that I simply wrote the check out for the wrong amount - yea, it's my fault, but someone could have simply called me, sent me a bill, ANYTHING. but no, instead they send it to collections, who also never bothered to contact me and freaking tell me this. It took me only about a 10 minute phone call to straighten it out - but if I hadnt gotten a copy of my report, I never would have even known.
Now to answer your actual question about a real mistake, that is, something that you did not actually do, you simply have to make a written request to the credit agency with notes on why it's not your credit and such. each of the big 3 have instuctions on their website for how to dispute things on there.
Don't Tread on Me
FTFA:
Should I order all my credit file disclosures at one time or space them out over 12 months?
You are entitled to receive one free credit file disclosure every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies through the Central Source. It is entirely your choice whether you order all three credit file disclosures at the same time or order one now and others later. The advantage of ordering all three at the same time is that you can compare them. (However, you will not be eligible for another free credit file disclosure from the Central Source for 12 months.) On the other hand, the advantage of ordering one now and others later (for example, one credit file disclosure every four months) is that you can keep track of any changes or new information that may appear on your credit file disclosure. Remember, you are entitled to receive one free credit file disclosure through the Central Source every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - so if you order from only one company today you can still order from the other two companies at a later date.
This is really good. The number of people with mistakes on credit reports is pretty high. Especially if anyone is to do anything major (buy a car, get a mortgage), you need to check your credit beforehand! IIRC, if you have been turned down for credit before, you can request a copy of the report in writing within (I think) a 60-day time period.
Here's their general contact info:
Equifax (800) 685-1111
P.O. Box 740243, Atlanta, GA 30374
Experian (888) 397-3742
P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013-3742
Trans Union (800) 916-8800
P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022
Also, if you want to opt-out those pre-approved credit solicitations, you can call (888) 567 8688 or contact the above parties by mail (make sure you reference your name, address, and SSN).
Equifax Inc.
Options
P.O. Box 740123
Atlanta, GA 30374-0123
Experian
Consumer Opt-Out
901 West Bond
Lincoln, NE 68521
Trans Union LLC
Name Removal Option
P.O. Box 97328
Jackson, MS 39288-7328
That being said, you should have been checking your credit once a year or so to make sure there's no mistakes. If you're buying a house in the next year, check now for any mistakes. They can take a looong time to fix.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
The regional roll-out is probably due to capacity, getting the records into an online database was possibly done in waves, state by state, and that's just the order they picked to enter them into the system in.
As for the referrer, look at how many scams are already going for people charging you absurd amounts to get a copy of your credit report. They are probably trying to prevent scammers from charging people for an online copy of their credit report when all they do after they charge your credit card $9.55 is to forward you to this site.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Contact the bureaus at the addresses in my other post. However, it is usually much quicker to contact the company reporting the incorrect information. Often times they just haven't updated anything and a call will quickly fix it. This is especially true for smaller local banks and consumer credit card companies. If they won't update that information, contact the bureaus, who will then contact the company and tell them, "Hey, fix this."
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
What exactly will prevent this?
The site says: "To assure that your credit file is disclosed only to you, the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies will authenticate your identity utilizing the personal identification information you provide on this site, including, but not limited to, your Social Security number, and then require that you answer certain questions."
But what information on my credit report is known to me that is not known to my immediate family members, my employer, my physician's office, etc.?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
In short, yes it is enough.
I recently went through some hassles trying to clear a delinquent account off my credit report. The thing is, this delinquent account was only reported by two of the three agencies. In fact, each of the agencies listed a different current address for me (former military, so I moved a fair amount), as well as slightly different account information.
If you find a discrepancy on your credit report, the first thing you need to get is evidence - preferably in the form of a letter or statement from the company making the negative report. Put that together with a letter giving an explanation of the situation. It's not a bad idea to put your last two addresses in addition to your current address, in notes at the bottom of the letter. Send copies of this to all three agencies (details can be found at their individual websites).
After a week or two processing time, the credit agencies will send you a written reply telling you the results of your challenge. Included with this will be an *updated copy* of your credit report detailing the changes that have been made.
One other thing to keep in mind when working with your credit: feel free to challenge something even if you know it's a legitimate negative item. If you tell the credit companies "No, I didn't bounce that check three years ago.", they have to attempt to contact the bank that claims you did. If that bank does not respond within a set time period (I believe it's 30 days, but I would have to double check), the negative item is wiped off your record.
Finally... bad credit items stay on your report for *SEVEN YEARS*. All you college students keep this in mind. Additionally, a good number of companies are doing credit checks as part of their interview process nowadays. It's also required if you're going to get a security clearance from the US Government.
Transplant
Disclaimer: I am not a credit counselor, nor do I work for any financial institutions. So, double check what I've just said before you take it as fact.
Everyone is entitled to see their credit report once a year for free. It has been that way as long as I can remember. The hard part was figuring out how to get it. If you ever applied for credit and were denied you were supposed to get a form to allow you to get a copy of the credit report for free to see why you were denied. This was only once a year. I actually had a website at one point that covered tons of details but it became outdated so I took it down. Don't apply for credit just to get the free credit report. You take a hit for an inquiry. Another piece of advice is that if you ever do apply for credit, do it all at once because there is a cap on how many hits you can take now. Now it is possible to shop around for the best rates when buying a car/home without taking a 100 pt hit on your credit just for all of the inquiries.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
Immediate impressions:
0) The idea is that you give the annualcreditreport.com's site your details, and then go back and forth between there and the three reporting agencies' websites. This worked pretty well. They have an interesting security feature where the site only works if you type the URL directly or the referrer is one of the 3 credit agencies.
1) Experian's site was broken --- it reported an error, but I bet the annualcreditreport.com now thinks I've used up my 1 free report with them anyway.
2) They don't give you your FICO score (the number summarizing your creditworthiness), but offer to sell it to you for 5 or 6 bucks, instead.
3) The sites do basically the same things, but the contrasts in processing and reporting styles between Equifax and TransUnion (Experian he broken, remember) are interesting:
* Equifax asked me a trick security question to verify my identity: "You may have a mortgage from January 2001 -- Which of the following is the monthly payment?" The answer for me was 'None of the above' as I don't have a mortgage from then. But it scared the shit out of me when I saw the question! Talk about identity theft!
* Transunion makes you establish a login name / password / reminder question + email contact, and tries to sneak in a spam newsletter. Equifax doesn't do this.
* Both sites try hard to get you to buy your FICO score.
* Transunion's report presents its information better than Equifax's.
In Norway, you get a (paper) copy of your credit report every time someone hires a company to make one. It's the law over here. It seems reasonable. You've actually had to pay for getting to know your own credit details? It's kind of funny.
Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF, all my base are belong to you
What do you think the US government's credit report would look like?
Slashdot needs to interview Natalie Portman.
When I requested my credit reports before I got married they asked some questions that even I had problems answering. An example of a few I remember are: You currently have a student loan issued by which of the following banks? Bank A. Bank B. Bank C. None of the Above. Or another was What was the address you lived at when you received credit card XXXX?
These are good questions and I'm sure they've gove through a lot of work try and figure out how to ensure your credit report only goes to the appropriate person. While there are reasons to be leary of the credit reporting industry this is NOT one of them.
My Slashdot account is old enough to drink...
I think you've hit on a new definition of free. We all know "Free as in Free Speech" and "Free as in Free Beer", I propose a new category: "Free as in Free iPod" defined as something that is advertised as free, but actually involves a pyramid scheme or some other scam that makes it non-free.
Reality has a liberal bias
You can get a free credit report already if you get turned down for credit. This is just going to swamp the credit bureaus with unnecessary requests and make it harder to get mistakes corrected. It's cheap to get a report anyway. This is just the govt pretending to do something for the little guy.
If the govt really wanted to do something meaningful, they would stop employers from pulling credit reports for employee candidates. It's truly unfair for anonymous HR wankers to evaluate the worth of a candidate based on credit scores, scores that can be ruined by illness, theft, unemployment, or a former spouse. Many talented, hard-working IT professionals have been unemployed for long stretches.
All of this personal information floating around contributes to identity theft as well.
Good heavens Miss Sakamoto - you're beautiful!
Since its pretty obvious you haven't pulled your own credit report through one of the bureaus before let me give you a run-down of the things you must verify.
Start with your SSN, home address, phone number, etc. After authenticating all of that information you will get probably five questions like the following:
In October 2001, a request to open a loan was made by Toyota Financial Services, how much is this payment each month for this loan
A. 200.27 - 224.56
B. 235.57 - 260.01
C. 265.33 - 290.17
D. 315.29 - 327.89
E. I do not have an account with this institution
Now when I go through it, I have to pull my bills to answer all the questions . This is one of the things that the bureaus have been good at in terms of enforcing security by putting these questions to the person requesting their credit file.
Last time someone did this sort of post(might have been k5, not slashdot), I found 2 out of the 5 addresses were wrong- not just wrong digit...wrong PO box, wrong town, wrong STATE. That's VERY dangerous given that you are sending more than enough information necessary to do identity theft.
Please post links to their "how to reach us" pages on their websites next time.
Please help metamoderate.
Pulling your own report once in awhile shouldn't affect your credit rating. If a company sees many lenders pulling your report it may show you as shopping around for a loan, which may show you're being denied by various lenders. That's the general f'd up logic.
I think the credit scoring system is messed up anyways. Any company can report you for being delinquent and screw up your rating. It then becomes your reponsibility to correct their mistake, which they don't get punished for. They should start fining companies that make mistakes and report credit issues about the wrong person or credit issues that are just inccorect(billing errors etc...)
I was sent to collections one time over a $30 doctor bill. I thought I paid in full when the service was received AND I never received an additional bill. Nearly a year later I get a 3rd party collection notice. I paid the $30(the 3rd party place didn't care that I thought I paid and the hospital wouldn't talk to me b/c they sent the issue 3rd party), but it's still on my credit report that I had a bill that was over 180 days delinquent. The crap that happened to me has to stop.
Ummm, I hope you pretend to an ignorance you do not possess. I can think of any number of reasons why such information could be of use in such a situation, and why making it available on a website (security?) might have its issues.
I hate to tell you this, but your credit reports are already available on "a website".
One of many is TransUnion's TrueCredit. You can instantly get all three of your credit reports and scores, if you're willing to pay $35. Of course, you have to answer very specific questions that reasonably only you should know. No, not just things like your name and SSAN. But dates and times accounts were opened or closed. Addresses you might have lived at. And so on. It is considered a legally sufficient effort to establish your identity.
Currently, the law allows customers free access to their credit report from a credit reporting agency, but only if they have been turned down for credit, turned down for employment, etc., because of data contained in the report. There are also other convoluted ways to obtain a free credit report. Why should banks, employers, and other financial institutions be able to have access to your credit report virtually at will, when you - the consumer; the very person on whom the data is collected - cannot easily or inexpensively get routine access to your own reports??
The government's argument is that a consumer is entitled to access these reports for free, once a year. In a normal universe, this would be viewed as a good thing for the consumer, but in this crazy alternate reality some people live in now, it MUST be some kind of a neocon plot.
Be that as it may, many other countries impose legal requirements on credit reporting agencies to make their records available to the individuals concerned, and I see no reason why the US should be an exception.
The US is no exception. We've always had legal requirements surrounding the acquisition of credit reports, and still do. There is a level of muster that must be met for identification, distribution, and security. These reports are ALREADY DELIVERED ONLINE by all three agencies AND third party companies directly to the end customer. The information is already there and easily accessible. Additionally, there will no doubt be tracking to ensure each customer only obtains one report per year.
Is your assertion that now that there is a site that allows customers the right to view one free instance of their credit reports per year, that this system is somehow more prone to a large data collection conspiracy, even though the data has been collected and distributed in the same fashion for years?
I can't believe that this act actually does something GOOD for the consumer - something that customers can already do, but have to pay a virtual arm and leg for - and you twist it around into a conspiracy.
Call this one number to opt out of all three bureaus:
Opt Out
888-567-8688
I did this about a year ago and it stopped the offers cold. It's a single-point where you can tell all four credit reporting agencies to stop giving your data to direct marketers.
But don't take my word for it, put the phone number in Google and read all about it.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
UH HUH
888-567-8688
888-FAT-GIRL
yea, right. I'm not falling for that one. again