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Posts Tagged ‘free government credit reports’

How to get your free government credit reports (cont…)

(c) Copyright 2006 by Timothy Thriftwood

Simply ask and you shall receive! Their government-mandated rule is that every consumer has the right to receive his or her Credit Report once every year, and once for every time they’ve been turned down for a loan of any kind.

Don’t just settle for one report, either. You’ve got the right to ask all three for your once-a-year report, so don’t skimp and settle for just one. These three reports will usually differ from one another because the creditors who report to them are subscribed to different ones… So your department store card account might show up on Equifax, but never have been reported to TransUnion. (This is certainly true in my case.)

There’s one final thought I’d like to leave you with. Even a “paid” Credit Report, where you’ve paid a website service to deliver your report, may not be as detailed as these free government credit reports… They are made by a mandate, and the paid ones only offer to show you what they can get their hands on… So at least in my opinion, there’s never a reason to ever pay a penny for a Credit Report!

Hopefully you’ll see the value in this information and use it to it’s best extent. Although Uncle Sam says that the bureaus have to give you the information, they made no budget at all to market that fact to anyone, so it’s so easy to fall for the opposing camp’s marketing ploys. Don’t give in! You don’t need too pay that much for credit monitoring.

It’s not hard at all to do it yourself!

Tim Thriftwood is a home lender & realtor who has helped dozens of credit-challenged families into homes when other lenders told them no. Browse Tim’s Credit Repair website and take advantage of his all-free resources to help you repair your Credit Score.

How to get your free government credit reports (cont…)

(c) Copyright 2006 by Timothy Thriftwood

So, which websites aren’t trying to sell me something?

Even the websites run by the three credit bureaus themselves have products to push on you! TransUnion’s website, truecredit.com, offers the best product of the three, a full tri-merge report (showing the data from all three credit bureaus) and scores as well, with warnings and everything… But at a cost of $20 a month, most people feel cheated when they go there to find their free government credit reports, just to be pitched another product.

It is my experience that any time you go online to find anything for free at all, in any industry, there will be sales pages in your way from getting what you’re told is free, or at the very least, they ask you to sign up for their mailing lists so that they can at least continue to try to pitch something to you over and over again in the future.

Why should free government credit reports be any different? The trick here is that you don’t have to go online to get your credit reports… In this case, it’s actually better that you don’t!

The no-hassle, absolutely free, without any other sales pitches method to obtaining your credit reports.

Give your monitor a break and pick up the phone. All three major credit bureaus accept requests for free government credit reports by both snail mail and telephone, which they can either mail back to you or in some cases fax to you. Here is the contact information you’ve been seeking:

Experian

• 1-888-397-3742
• National Consumers Assistance Center
• P.O. Box 2104
• Allen, TX 75013-2104

Equifax

• 1-800-525-6285
• P.O. Box 740241
• Atlanta, GA 30374

TransUnion

• 1-800-916-8800
• Consumer Disclosure Center
• P.O. Box 2000
• Chester, PA 19022

How to get your free government credit reports

 

(c) Copyright 2006 by Timothy Thriftwood

Did you know that Uncle Sam has allocated a Credit Report about you, for you, at no charge whatsoever, every single year?

It’s true. Don’t waste your time on one of those online companies that claims to give you your free Credit Report and then wants to charge you money for it… The government says that you are entitled one for free every year anyway!

On top of that, you’ll have a chance to get another copy of it anytime that you’ve been denied for credit… They have to give you a free copy whenever that happens, too.

So why is it that so many companies out there can get away with offering to show you your free Credit Report and score when they usually are just trying to sell you something?

Mainly because the whole credit reporting industry is still pretty new and quite a mystery to most people. Only 50 years ago we didn’t have any credit reporting agencies, so getting credit was a matter of having your creditor call your bank and other past creditors you’ve had and asking them on the phone how big a credit risk you are! Nowadays, we have both the blessing and the curse of the big three Credit Agencies, which are there to help us, despite how it feels.

Let’s not overlook the fact that it’s a complicated industry, too. The government has to intervene in order to protect consumers, just like they do with mortgage lending prices. Government red tape will always mean that the populace won’t usually attempt to try to learn about an industries’ inner workings.

So with any new industry, you’re going to get your con artists, snake oil salesmen, and flat-out liars. It really shouldn’t be surprising in our modern internet age to see people taking advantage of the public’s lack of knowledge on how this industry works.