Online Review Site

There are organisations, called credit bureaus that are dedicated to gathering and storing information about the credit worthiness of every American citizen, including you. The majority of credit reports are stored at three large bureaus namely Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Because an adverse credit report may affect your lifestyle so drastically, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires credit bureaus to provide you with a free copy of your annual credit report once every twelve months. Credit reports can also be obtained from the credit bureaus more often than once a year if you are prepared to pay for them.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act is another law designed to protect consumers. It requires that all online credit reports contain accurate and fair information. Should you find that there are inaccuracies in your credit report you can lodge a written complaint with the bureau concerned and request that their information on you be changed.  The bureau will then investigate and bring about changes to your credit report score if the information is not accurate.

You can obtain your online free credit report, nationwide, by logging onto annualcreditreport.com or calling the national number 1-877-3-22-8228. Reports are available immediately on the website and within 15 days of a bureau receiving your written application. The only information you need supply when applying for your free credit report is your name, address, social security number, date of birth and if you have moved recently, your previous address.

Because the information contained in your credit report is of a sensitive nature, it is advisable to use only the official annualcreditreport website. There are impostors on the Internet that would like to obtain your private information so beware using any other websites unless you know precisely whom you are dealing with.

Your credit report is available to creditors and you will be advanced or denied credit according to a FICO scoring system which ranks you from 300 to 850 points; the higher the score the better credit risk you are. About 50% of the population have a score higher than 600 on the FICO scale.

Online credit reports take into account the number of debts you have, your history of payments, how much credit you are carrying and any bad credit reports about you. If you have a bad credit history and the information is accurate, it takes between seven and ten years for that information to be expunged from your credit report. The short answer to keeping a good credit report is to pay your debts and maintain open communication with your creditors.

For more information about free credit reports check our finance folder.