Around that time, I decided it was much better to own than rent. So, I went condo shopping. I met with a realtor who hooked me up with a mortgage broker. He pulled my credit and with the exception of having one late payment, all looked to be good. But wait, I was told. Why are you not paying on this student loan? I said that I have been. Once I was out of school about 5 or 6 months I made a payment each and every month. The mortgage broker countered that something must be amiss because I was showing two school loans for exactly the same original amount. In other words, I was showing duplicate loans on the credit report. The mortgage broker said that this situation would have to be taken care of before a loan could be granted on the condo that I liked.

So with his help, I set out to prepare a letter to send to each of the credit reporting agencies regarding my dispute. In other words, a dispute letter. Within 3 weeks or so, this duplicate loan on the credit report was removed from all three credit bureaus. Within another couple of weeks, I closed on the condo and all worked out well. Moral of the story. Get your free annual credit report and keep on top of your credit.

A Free Report Is Mandatory

According to the law, each and every American individual has an access to a free credit card report once a year but ever since this rule has been passed in the year 2005, there is nothing but confusion. There are a few websites that offer free credit card reports which require the revelation of credit card information from prospective customers. You may provide these companies with your credit card number, sign up for a thirty day free trial offer and yet never receive your free credit report. Do you think this is the correct procedure?

Choose Websites With Care

You have to be very careful while choosing such sites and to avoid scams, you ought to do your research work with utmost care. Websites which are known to follow their security protocols and those that have been known to use the latest security as well as encryption procedures should be chosen while the rest simply avoided. This is of vital importance if you want to steer clear of the identity theft issues. The credit card information that you feed should only be viewed by your own eyes and no third party should have any access to it.

Get your free credit report and free credit score online

Study Your Credit Scores Carefully

Ideally you should try and get a credit report which does not have any credit scores mentioned on them. This is simply because almost 40% of all credit reports which have scores on them are full of errors and hence, they need to be avoided at all costs. So, you need to spot those errors before sending the report to the credit bureau. If your appeal is backed by proof, your report would be rectified with a 30 days time frame as per the law.

Get Your Credit Scores And Free Report

When you want to get a credit score, you can always do so as there is no law regarding your credit scores. You can have as many as you want which is not the case with a free credit report which in turn is limited to just one report in a year. In order to get you credit report, you should simply sign up with a website which provides your free credit score along with your detailed credit score.  Simply choose a suitable company which offers a 30 day free trial period before selecting it for your future use. At the same time, you need to pay adequate attention while reading through the offer document carefully.

Cancel On Time

After you have chosen the most appropriate website from where you can get both your credit scores as well as your free report, you need to make sure that you read through the offer document carefully as you would not like to get charged unnecessarily. If there is a free trial involved and you do not wish to use the services after that, simply cancel the subscription on a timely basis.

By reading through this article, you must have realized how to avoid the scams that are attached to free credit reports. Simply follow these steps and ensure that your credit scoring gets a boost for the coming year.

The first type of credit report is the credit report where you only get a credit report from one of the bureaus. There are 3 bureaus, and they are Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian. Typically the offer includes a report only from one of these bureaus. You might ask yourself how does this help me, and the answer is it does not help very much. The reason is since there are 3 bureaus, and they all report somewhat different information; you might want to get a credit report from all three bureaus. This is called a tri-merge, or a 3-1 credit report. In other words you get one report with all three bureaus and what they are currently reporting about you in regards to loans outstanding with your creditors.

The second type of credit report is the 3-1 credit report with credit score. This is somewhat better; you get all three bureaus reporting your information along with only one of the agencies giving a score. Well you might ask yourself again, what is the advantage and disadvantages of this type of credit report? Since there are 3 bureaus reporting your credit, it would only make sense to get all 3 scores since that is what most lenders look at. Mortgage companies pull your 3-1 credit report with all three scores and typically use the middle score for qualifying purposes. If this is the industry standard in the qualifying process, shouldn?t you see the same report? I would have to say yes.

The third type of credit report is the 3-1 credit report with all 3 scores. This is the best type of credit report, because it is what lenders look at. Most people out there getting a free copy of there credit reports are not really sure what they are getting. Annualcreditreport.com advertises that you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report once a year, but fail to mention you don?t get your scores. It is in your best interest to get your credit report with all 3 bureaus and all 3 scores, especially since this is what most creditors look at in the determining process for lending you money.

Here is the break down for credit scores and how they are classified for mortgage:

? 780-850 ? Low Risk

? 740-780 – Medium ?Low Risk

? 690-740- Medium Risk

? 620-690- Medium High Risk

? 620 and Below ? High Risk or ?Sub-Prime.?

With all of this being said, it obviously makes more sense to get your 3-1 credit report with all 3 credit scores. Especially since that is what creditors are looking at. When pulling a consumer credit report it does not affect your credit scores.

There are three ways that you can order your free report:

* Online: When you order your credit report online, you will be able to view and print it instantly.

* Phone: 1-877-322-8228. If you order your report by phone, it will take 15 days to process your request.

* Mail: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta GA 30348-5281. You will need to fill out a request form to order your report by mail. It may take 3 to 4 weeks to receive your report through the mail.

Remember; you can only obtain your free annual credit report through Annual Credit Report; you can NOT contact the credit agencies directly for your free report. They will provide you with a report, but you will have to pay for it (average cost $10.50).

When you request your free credit report, you need to have the following information: address, social security number and date of birth. If you have lived at your current address for less than two years, you will need to provide your previous address. You will also need to be able to provide information about your personal financial affairs so that the bureaus can confirm your identity. Some of the most common questions asked by credit bureaus involve information that you are very familiar with such as the amount of your mortgage payment, car payment or credit card balance.

In addition to one free annual credit report, there are special circumstances where you may be eligible for a free report directly from one of the credit reporting bureaus:

* Adverse Action: If you are turned down for credit, employment or insurance benefits because of information contained on your credit report, you are entitled to a free report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. The notice will include all the information you need to request your free report.

* Unemployment: If you are unemployed and plan to look for a job within the next 60 days, you can request a free credit report from one of the three main credit reporting agencies. You are only allowed one per year. This also applies for families receiving public assistance.

* Identity Theft: If your report is inaccurate because of fraud or identity theft, you can request one free copy per year.

Most financial advisers recommend that you review your credit report for errors every 90 days. If you are not requesting your free reports regularly, you could be putting your financial future in jeopardy. Nearly 25% of credit reports contain errors that can lead to a denial of credit. Yours may be one of them, but you will never know unless you check it out for yourself.

Your Username and Password will enable you to view your credit report on some of these services for 30 days over the Internet in the most secure environment that they can provide. You will also have access to an array of benefits located in services like – My Credit Center.

Getting your free Credit Report and Credit Score is the first step in knowing your credit. Monitoring your credit report allows you to stay on top of your credit on a daily basis.

You should do this to take the guesswork out of what/\’s happening with your credit.

Your credit is one of your most important assets. Having good credit means you should have more options to borrow money at the lowest cost and from the best lenders. It also means that others who look at your credit such as landlords, insurance companies, or even prospective employers re less likely to turn you away or penalize you because you have poor credit.

Your personal credit report contains such information as your name, current and previous addresses, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth, and current and previous employers. Your spouse’s name may appear on your version of the credit report, but it will not appear on the version that is provided to others. This information comes from your credit applications, so its accuracy depends on your filling out the forms clearly, completely and consistently each time you apply for credit.

Creditreport.imess.net is worth a try. Many people say they have used it to monitor their credit and some have said that they also cleaned off some bad items from their credit report. You can apply for a free initial plan and get your scores and reports for free.

In all your thoughts about credit reporting do keep in mind there are 3 reporting agencies. If you keep track of when you pull each of the three then you can spread it out to one every 4 months. That would be ideal if you could do that.

Freecreditreport.com, Experian, Transunion, Equifax are all in it to make some money from providing these reports. So many people are asking where they can get a genuine free credit report without having to give up my credit card information and sign up for some monthly membership or a dumb “identity theft monitoring alert” service?

Unfortunately, in order to get your credit report a lot of the websites ask for your credit card information. They do that so when you sign up for a free trial if you don’t cancel within that time they can charge your account. Myfico.com is one of the best ones out there. I understand that users have reported that they signed up for there free 30 day trial and also cancelled it before the 30 days was up and indeed didn’t get charged anything.

What is a free credit report?

The answer lies in the last three words of your question and is self-explanatory. A free credit report is when a credit bureau provides an individual a copy of their credit report without a charge.

It’s exactly what it says it is. A free credit report.. in other words, you don’t have to pay for it.

Am I entitled for a free credit report?

I am not sure whether this is correct, but I have been told that residents of Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and Vermont are entitled under state law to one free report per year from a credit reporting agency. If you are a resident of Georgia, you are even entitled to more reports at two each year.

This is very useful especially if you have been denied credit on the basis of information in a credit report.

Who is eligible?

I am not a legal expert but I did find a statement on the web that said that based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act, sections 612 (b), (c), and (d), you are entitled to one free credit report per year directly from a credit reporting agency only if you certify that you are unemployed and seeking employment in the next 60 days, you are receiving public assistance, or you believe there are inaccuracies in your report due to fraud or have been denied credit because of information on your credit report. To get your free credit report, go directly to a credit reporting bureau and have proof of the criteria that entitles you to receive your free credit report.

Information here should not be construed as advice and it is offered without legal responsibility or liability. It must be emphasised that you should consult a professionally qualified individual or company (such as an accountant, financial adviser or solicitor for example) should you need advice on your financial situation, as they will be able to tailor their advice to your situation accordingly.

Product Description
The Fair Credit Report Act is fully and completely explained for you. Free credit report secrets are also revealed to you. For example, you will learn: * How to order your FREE credit report * How to reach the credit report agencies * How to improve your credit and do credit repair * How to avoid credit repair scams * How to deal with a mountain of debt And, you get total access to the Fair Credit Report Act. This book gives you everything you need to understand your rights. It also helps you save money, clean up your credit and even eliminate your debt…. More >>

Fair Credit Reporting Act: Free Credit Report Secrets

Get Your Free Credit Score from CreditReport.com!

Anything which is listed as Paid As Agreed, we will leave alone. Paid As Agreed is a positive listing. Look for items which say charge offs, foreclosure, repossessions, collections and paid collections, settled accounts, bankruptcy and included in bankruptcy, as well as 30, 60, 90, or 120 day late payments. Also look for an item that says Too New To Rate. It shows up on my report as a negative listing (ouch). With the exception of Paid As Agreed, make sure you highlight each of the items mentioned above, one credit report at a time. A negative listing can be in the form of something on your credit report that does not belong to you. Check for duplicate items which and balances which may not be correct and make sure to highlight those listings.

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the information provider (ie the company that gave you your auto loan) as well as the consumer reporting company (ie Equifax) are required to correct incomplete or inaccurate  information as it relates to your credit report. Make sure you go through each of the negative listings to determine if they are valid or if they do not belong on your credit report. Credit report analysis is now complete.

We can help to fix your credit score fast!

In order to fix your credit or credit score, you must first understand what your credit report looks like. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can get a copy of your annual credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).  So what did I do?  I got my free annual credit report by going to annualcreditreport.com. Otherwise you can give them a call at 877-322-8228.

Once you have all three of your credit reports, sit down and review them for accuracy.  Each of these credit reports will have their own individualized information. Meaning, you may find that a certain creditor shows up on one of your credit reports and not on another. You may also find that if you had moved quite a bit, again this information may be on one credit report but not another. Based upon personal experience, I can tell you that you might find inaccuracies relating to duplicate credit items and medical or utility bills that may not belong to you. We will take care of that at a later point. For now, realize that according to law you have a right to the free annual credit report from the big 3 and you have a right to dispute any inaccuracies in those credit reports.

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