The Real Story…
News and commentary about the real estate market and related topics.
Dave Parrish, ABR ®, CRSA, CSP, GRI, ePRO ®, REALTOR ®, RealtySouth
Guarding & Protecting Your Credit Score…
Over the course of the last several weeks, I’ve reviewed the importance and impact of credit scores and how they are determined.
This week I’ll focus on what everyone should be doing to protect this valuable asset… A Good Credit Score.
The first step that you must take to guard your credit scores is awareness of what they are …
So begin with getting and reviewing a copy of your credit report at least once every twelve months.
A credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, provides you with all of the information in your credit file maintained by a consumer reporting company that could be provided by the consumer reporting company in a consumer report about you to a third party, such as a lender.
A credit file disclosure also includes a record of everyone who has received a consumer report about you from the consumer reporting company within a certain period of time (“inquiries”).
The credit file disclosure includes certain information that is not included in a consumer report about you to a third party, such as the inquiries of companies for pre-approved offers of credit or insurance and account reviews, and any medical account information which is suppressed for third party users of consumer reports.
You are entitled to receive a disclosure copy of your credit file from a consumer reporting company under Federal law and the laws of various states. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — to provide you with a FREE copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. This free report is not automatic… You must request the report using the procedure described below.
The three nationwide consumer reporting companies have set up a central website, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address through which you can order your free annual report.
To order, visit annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
For a copy of the form use the following link:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/resources/forms/requestformfinal.pdf
Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies directly, as they only provide free annual credit reports through one of the channels noted above.
You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time. The law allows you to order one free copy of your report from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months.
A Warning About “Imposter” Websites
Only one website is authorized to fill orders for the free annual credit report you are entitled to under law — annualcreditreport.com. Other websites that claim to offer “free credit reports,” “free credit scores,” or “free credit monitoring” are not part of the legally mandated free annual credit report program. In some cases, the “free” product comes with strings attached. For example, some sites sign you up for a supposedly “free” service that converts to one you have to pay for after a trial period. If you don’t cancel during the trial period, you may be unwittingly agreeing to let the company start charging fees to your credit card.
Some “imposter” sites use terms like “free report” in their names; others have URLs that purposely misspell annualcreditreport.com in the hope that you will mistype the name of the official site. Some of these “imposter” sites direct you to other sites that try to sell you something or collect your personal information.
Annualcreditreport.com and the nationwide consumer reporting companies will not send you an email asking for your personal information. If you get an email, see a pop-up ad, or get a phone call from someone claiming to be from annualcreditreport.com or any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies, do not reply or click on any link in the message. It’s probably a scam. Forward any such email to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.
Next week I’ll discuss what to do if you see errors on your credit report.
