Archive for September, 2009
Where can I get my credit reports for free?
September 25th, 2009
admin Everytime I try to get my “free” credit report, I’m asked to pay for something in order to get it. I know that you can get a free credit report every 12 months, but how? Can you get a free credit report from all three agencies?
Diane
Free Credit Report and Score – Quick Tips You Can Use Now For Credit Report- FICO-Credit Repair!
September 23rd, 2009
admin These are just a few of the best credit tips and facts to help you improve your credit report and score and give you some ideas for fixing or repairing your credit. When buying a car get pre-approved first at your bank or credit union for example, because car dealers will contact several companies in an effort to get you the cheapest rate and this will affect your FICO score because you’ll have several hits at one time on your credit report.
It’s often recommended to drastically reduce your credit card use leave your credit card at home. However many people find it hard to do this if they need to carry it in case they need to call for a tow truck or other emergency. Weigh the risks.
If you can’t make your payments on time, contact your creditors immediately. Always be proactive when it comes to any debt you have. Develop a simple plan to repay your debt, and do your best to follow that plan even if it’s only to pay a small amount each month.
If you contact your creditors write down the specific names and phone numbers of your contacts at the companies. Follow up any phone conversations with creditors with letters confirming any agreements you’ve made.
Keep in constant contact with your creditors until you resolve your credit problems. Bankruptcy should not be the first solution to your financial problems. It doesn’t wipe your credit slate clean or give you a fresh start because it stays on your credit report for up to ten years.
The ability to buy a car, and/or get a home loan absolutely depends on your credit history and score. Some employers will use your credit score in their evaluation of you as a future employee.
What is FICO? FICO is a three-digit number that determines the interest rate you’ll pay on your credit cards, car loans and home mortgages and determine whether you’ll be able to get a cell phone or have your rental application for a house or apartment accepted or declined.
What does FICO stand for? It’s an acronym for Fair Isaac Corporation. Your FICO score is the biggest factor in determining your credit rating with lenders.
The average amount of time it takes to “clean up” any serious negative credit history is seven years. A higher FICO score puts you right in line for a lower interest rate on a loan or credit card. Any time you apply for a loan of any kind your FICO score will take a hit.
High school students are thought to be one of the easiest targets by credit card companies because it’s known they’re uninformed and eager to spend.
Simple but true: the only way to avoid credit card debt is to never use your credit card. A good guideline – always use your cash, not your credit cards for food, movie tickets and anything less than $10.00.
A good plan to follow when paying on any debt is to pay a little bit before the due date and pay at least a few dollars more than your scheduled payment. Pay your credit card debt online to avoid finding out that your mailed checks haven’t arrived on time and pay these three to four days ahead of time at least.
When paying credit card bills online, be aware that sometimes the site can be down for emergencies or maintenance or you may have a problem with your ISP. Pay a few days early if possible.
You’re entitled to an annual free credit report online from each of the three major credit report bureaus. Make sure to check for errors. You may find someone else’s name and debt on your report, an incorrect birth year, etc.
These are just a few of the best credit tips to help you with your credit report and score and repair. The more you can learn the more you’ll be able to raise your FICO score and help your credit history.
Raul
What is the best “free credit report” website?
September 16th, 2009
admin what is the legit place to get access to your once a year, free credit report? I don’t trust half of what I read….
Thanks!
Charles
The Truth About "free" Credit Reports
September 12th, 2009
admin We set the record straight so that won’t happen. Text How many of us have looked at anything offered to us for “free”? Not me? Of course I have. In this day in age when gas prices are listed as “Arm” and “Leg”, providing health insurance for your family costs more than some mortgage payments and the cost of raising kids looks like a hockey stick pasted onto a graph, you bet I look at offers to save money.
Therein lie’s the problem. It seems like the vast majority of American consumers are desperate to cut costs, any costs, and will jump too soon at offers promising to do just that. Sometimes when you combine a cost cutting mentality with the importance of credit, not only to purchase the big ticket items important to us, but more and more to simply survive in this economy, desperation happens. Unfortunately, the marketers know this too. So, without a little education anyone can get confused and the likelihood of being taken advantage of increases significantly. The good news is that just a little education will save you plenty.
Take for example, the term “Free Credit Report”. It now ranks right up there with the ubiquitous, “new” and “improved”. “Free Credit Report” has become part of that lexicon of advertising buzz words that are absolutely meaningless to me. But for many, there is much confusion over this term. Why? I think mainly because it has been announced that federal law dictates we are all entitled to a free credit report on the front page of all the newspapers.
We know everyone wants a free credit report, which is why we started our site. People naturally want something that is mandated by law to be at no cost, is front page news and is so incredibly important to each of us if we want to purchase just about anything. We know people want their free credit report and because most all of us work so hard for our money, we think people deserve hearing the truth about the subject. That is why we even put a section on our page entitled, “The Truth About Free Credit Reports”.
So, is it not true? Yes, it is true, it’s just that the devil is in the details and the resulting confusion has been a bonanza for those seeking to cash in on the confusion. In fact, each of us in the good ole U. S. of A. is entitled to a free credit report. But, how do you get it? Where do you get it? Who is giving it to you? Why is it being offered for free? And most importantly, who cannot offer you one for free?
Who cannot offer a free credit report? Let’s start with the last one first because it shines a lot of light on the rest of the questions. Any company, web site or service that is in business for a profit and is not named Experian, Trans Union or Equifax is not able to provide anyone at any time with anything remotely resembling a credit report free of cost. Period. End of story. Got that? Further, there is one place set up on the web to get free copies of credit reports at no cost and it is: www.annualcreditreport.com . We’ll talk more about this site a little later but, other wise, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.
How then are these offers being made? Look closely, the “Free” report is usually offered initially upon signing up for a service that charges your credit card each month for monitoring your credit. If you cancel the service just in the nick of time, before the charge is made to your card, you will get it at no cost. What a hassle! And the bet is you will wake up at least one, if not a couple or more months later with several charges to your card. You think these guys make foolish bets?!
Then what caused a free credit report to be offered on the front page of newspapers, who is providing them and how and where do I get one? Due to the importance of consumer credit history, identity theft and complaints from consumer rights groups about having to purchase a credit report in order to gain knowledge about the contents shown on individual consumer reports, even if it was reported inaccurately, a change was mandated.
The Fair and Accurate Consumer Trade Act (FACTA), a revision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, provided for one credit report free of charge from the reporting agencies (Experian, Trans Union and Equifax) every twelve months, if and only if, you haven’t received a credit report in the previous twelve months. The consumer, by either mailing a written request to the three major credit reporting agencies or going to www.annualcreditreport.com one can obtain the free report if they meet the criteria. This program was and is being phased in to sections of the U.S. by the credit reporting agencies starting in the western states, with the northeastern states at the time of this writing still to come.
However, Pamela Yip of The Dallas Morning News writes that even this has not been without its problems.
“The Federal Trade Commission said Experian Information Solutions Inc., one of the three major credit bureaus, settled complaints that it “deceptively marketed ‘free credit reports’ by not adequately disclosing that consumers automatically would be signed up for a credit report monitoring service and charged $79.95 if they didn’t cancel within 30 days… . With the help of the Federal Trade Commission, the bureaus established www.annualcreditreport.com as the only authorized online source for consumers to get a free report under federal law.
While many consumers haven’t had any problem getting their reports, others say they’ve been hit with sales pitches for products and services from the credit bureaus or were diverted to imposter sites. The FTC said the company led consumers to its www.freecredit report.com and www.consumer info.com Web sites. Radio, TV, e-mail and Web ads promised free reports and “a bonus – free trials of a credit-monitoring service.”
The FTC said consumers “were assured that: ‘Your card will not be charged during the free trial period. However, valid credit card information is required to establish your account.’ “
What the Web sites didn’t adequately disclose is that consumers would be charged the $79.95 annual fee if they didn’t cancel within 30 days, the FTC said.
“ConsumerInfo billed the credit cards that it had told consumers were ‘required only to establish your account,’ and, in some cases, automatically renewed memberships by rebilling consumers without notice,” the agency said.
As part of the settlement, the FTC required ConsumerInfo.com, an Experian company, to “give up $950,000 in ill-gotten gains.”
Experian also has agreed to provide refunds to consumers who purchased credit-monitoring products and ordered a free credit report between Nov. 1, 2000, and Sept. 15, 2003.
“It’s unfair and deceptive to promise consumers something for free and then trick them into paying for products they didn’t want in the first place,” said Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
“It wasn’t an attempt to mislead at all,” said Peg Smith, an Experian executive vice president. “We absolutely deny any wrongdoing.” She does acknowledge that consumers may have been confused.
“To the effect that our product offering has caused that confusion, we certainly regret that,” Ms. Smith said. “We encourage consumers to read the language in any disclosure on any Web site, including our own.”
The FTC also requires ConsumerInfo.com to state clearly that its free credit report offer isn’t related to the federal program.” http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=list&p_topdoc=21
The reality is that no one credit report or combination of three credit reports by and of themselves is sufficient to educate oneself about where you stand as a consumer in the eyes of a lender. Imagine a high speed race boat zooming across a lake at top speed without a steering wheel. Where it is going is a complete mystery but one thing is for sure, it will crash and crash quickly unless you get control. That’s right, you. Because without your credit scores and the knowledge about what they mean, how they were calculated or how a lender views them, you are headed for a crash.
No bank, credit card issuer, mortgage company, retail store or any other credit provider will grant you any item, service or product without looking almost exclusively at your credit scores and the average person has no idea what their scores are and even if they did, many if not most, wouldn’t know what they mean.
For example, most people don’t even know that repeated “pulling” of your credit reports by potential credit grantors lowers your scores by as much as four points per “pull”. You start “shopping” around for the best rate on a credit card by allowing each credit issuer to run a credit report on you and your score will take a dive. The difference between a 699 score and a 700 represents thousands and thousands of dollars in interest.
Often, credit issuers don’t make it perfectly clear that your credit history is being accessed when you respond to their offer for a new card over the phone. The call center sales representative also doesn’t explain and state clearly to you, that your credit history will show an “official inquiry” which counts against your scores whether you are accepted or rejected.
Most people don’t know that a maxed out credit card lowers their scores even if they pay on time every month. Many don’t know until it is too late that one late payment on one credit card will cause the interest rate charged to skyrocket not only on that card but any other cards that have a balance! Most also don’t know that a credit card balance showing less than thirty per cent of the available balance improves the score. Most don’t know that in calculating credit scores, your payment history counts as 35% of the score, amounts owed count 30% of the score, length of your credit history counts 15% of the score, new credit is 10% of the score and types of credit in use is 10%.
What is the truth about free credit reports? The truth, is that consumers need to read the fine print very, very carefully and get educated. The truth about credit reports in general is that only part of the story is being told by one. The truth, is that knowledge is power and without it your money is being taken from you, your buying power and therefore your future is being dictated to you rather than by you and that the cost of everything including insurance is based on your scores.
If asked for my advice to the average consumer? Worry less about getting a “free” report and more about the real cost of being ignorant regarding credit. Worry more about the immediate and long term costs of not taking control of what is reported on your credit report both the correct and incorrect. Gain some credit knowledge. It is easy to do and will literally save you a fortune. One thing is absolutely for sure, your money and future and your children’s future will be severely impacted by your credit. How, is up to you.
Arnold
Free credit reports and negative history?
September 11th, 2009
admin I had applied for a small loan and after receiving the reasons for its denial I noticed two reasons were something to the effect of “Delinquincy, public record, nonpayment”, or something similar. This alarmed me so I went to the official free credit report site and checked my history. The report I received on this site(through Equifax) did not indicate ANY negative history so I was confused as to why the bank’s credit check would.
I have several tens of thousands of dollars in debt due to student loans for law school but those don’t have to be paid back until after I graduate in 2009. My other credit history is small and I know I never missed any payments on any of my bills.
The only things I think it could be are either tickets/criminal history or overdrafting an account(which I’ve done once or twice). Would these qualify for the description the bank gave me? Why didn’t these things show on the free report? Sorry for the length but I wanted to be accurate.
A few additional details in light of the first answer. I should say that the main reason I was told I was refused was because of 1)a lack of credit history and 2)no paying job. The lack of credit history means I did not have any previous lines of credits with debt payable to a financial institution. My internship is for a government position(prosecutor) and is unpaid. Also any overdraft was immediately corrected.
I didn’t see any of the three reporting agencies on the letter but I’m sure I can give the bank a call and find out. I did receive my free report from the official site so hopefully I can still get additional ones from the other two agencies. Still does anyone have any ideas what these negatives could potentially be?
Nancy
why is it so difficult to bring up the free credit report?
September 8th, 2009
admin every time i try to pull the free report up, they require a credit card. that’s not free.
Florence
What is the website for getting a free credit report?
September 3rd, 2009
admin I just want to get a free credit report from the credit reporting agencies. I understand one is entitled to get one free for their own use.
Tony
Does a free credit report show everything or do you have to buy to see all?
September 1st, 2009
admin I got my free credit reports (from experion, transunion and equifax’s website) and was wondering if it is a full report or partial report. Do you have to actually buy your credit report to see everything that’s on it? I don’t want to have to buy it if all its going to show is what I have already seen on the free report.
Teresa

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