What Is The Annual Free Credit Report?
Decades ago, getting information about your credit standing would have been difficult and pointless. Although, lending companies would have the opportunity to view these credit reports, the consumers themselves could not access any information on their personal information.
Nor could they make any complaints for any bad credit that was mistakenly listed against them. Now, credit reporting agencies have opened the doors to consumers by giving them the proper information and reports they have on each individual borrower. Through the years, the U.S government has been very supportive to the problems regarding credit history reporting and scoring; a sequence of government legislation has been made to keep track of the credit reporting industry.
Not only that, these legislations has also been the answer to how consumers were allowed to view their credit reports, giving the consumers the reports for free and in instances that there were errors or problems regarding the reports they were given the opportunity to be corrected.
Specifically, under government legislation the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003, consumers are allowed to be given annual free credit reports. Basically this means you can get one copy of each of your 3 credit reports every twelve months.
Three of America’s major credit bureaus namely, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion have joined forces and developed an association called Annual Credit Report Request Service (ACRRS), this organization was made to take care of free credit reports requests.
These reports can be made through AnnualCreditReport.com, the only authorized website to gives you a free credit report through online requests, phone or mail. The only downside to these annual free credit reports is the rise of identity thieves that used this personal credit information to create scams.
Since AnnualCreditReport.com, is the only website authorized to give annual free credit reports, be cautious of other websites claiming that they too can give you credit reports for free. This will only cost you trouble, and may lose you a great sum of money because of a lot of hidden charges for reports and information you don’t actually need.
Once receiving your annual free credit report, make sure that everything listed is accurate and complete. Make sure that all the accounts belong to you and all the payments were noted and dated on time as you have done so. By checking your annual credit reports it will enable you to check for inaccuracies that will hinder you of having good credit standing in the future.
Additional Resources:
The Federal Trade Commission’s Information on Free Annual Credit Reports