Free credit report

Posted on January 21, 2008
Filed Under Advice, Credit Rating | 1 Comment

January is a great time to order a free annual credit report, and not just to live up to a New Year’s resolution.It’s also the time when you are more likely to discover someone has fraudulently used your credit card or identity to enrich themselves. The Identity Theft Resource Center gets more calls about lost and stolen wallets from November to January than at any other time of the year, it says.

And with all the shopping activity around the holidays, thieves hope their activity will stay hidden a little longer.

It just happened to me, and I didn’t even lose my wallet or credit card. Right before Christmas, my credit card company noticed an odd pattern of purchases on my card and called me to ask about it. When I said I hadn’t made the purchases, the credit card company immediately changed my account number and removed the charges as fraudulent.

The fraud department said it looked like someone was running numbers randomly until the combination worked. So in this case, the thieves didn’t need to steal my card. They probably used a sophisticated computer program.

And the thieves will probably get away with it, because they had merchandise delivered to empty houses somewhere, and their real location can’t be traced. Fraudulent purchases on credit cards are much easier to find out about than fraudulent applications for loans in your name. After all, you get a detailed account of what’s been charged on your account each month.That’s where the importance of the credit report comes in. It’s the one place you can easily find out someone has used your identity to take out a loan they don’t intend to repay.Federal law gives every citizen the right to one free report per year from the three major credit reporting agencies of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, but only about 22 percent of Americans have ordered a free copy since December 2004, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

“Having good credit can mean the difference between paying a high or a low interest rate for a loan or whether you’ll get offered jobs or even an apartment,” said Gail Hillebrand, senior attorney for Consumers Union. “It’s critical to review your credit reports every year to make sure they offer a fair picture of your credit history, and to keep an eye out for identity theft.”

Consumers can order free reports at: www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 877-322-8228. Reports can be requested from all three reporting agencies at once or can be staggered (one at a time, every four months) in order to check on new activity three times per year. Companies report to different agencies, so your reports may be different at each one.

Be careful to only order from the Web site or phone number above. Unfortunately, many businesses have sprung up offering “free” credit reports but then sell consumers other services such as credit monitoring. Such services are not considered useful by consumer advocates.

A 2007 Consumer Reports study found that of 24 such businesses with Web sites, 9 were owned or closely connected to TransUnion and 8 were owned or connected to Experian.

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, offers a free online guide with advice on how to order free credit reports, review them for accuracy and correct mistakes. It is available at:
www.consumersunion.org/finance/YourCreditMatters.html

You also can find a lot of good information on credit reports and other credit issues at the Federal Trade Commission’s Web site: www.ftc.gov — Click on “consumer protection,” then “consumer information” and then “credit.”

If you find mistakes on your credit report, it’s important to file a dispute in writing with the consumer reporting agency that issued the report. Keep a copy of the letter and all documentation for your records. Don’t send originals of documentation, but send copies.

For tips on how to respond if someone has illegally used your identity, visit:
www.idtheftcenter.org

by Michelle Brunetti

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