Patti Phillips
Prudential California Realty
6119 La Granada
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
Direct toll free: 800-680-9133
Cell: 619-507-2100 Office: 858-481-2020
www.PattiPhillipsRealEstate.com

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Free Credit Reports Are Your Right! Don't Pay for One!

Credit Reports Are Your Right!
Don’t Pay For One!

Did you know that by law you are entitled to one free credit report each year from each of the three big credit bureaus? Those are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. They are more than happy to provide you with it, and there is a web-site that will order them for you free! Just be certain that you go to the right place- because if you don’t you will be charged!

The site that you want is Annualcredreport.com. There you can order free reports from all three bureaus. There is also a free number you can call to request your credit reports: 877-322-8228. Be careful when you order, because there are many others that SOUND the same, they will attract you with the promise of a free report, and then lure you into other services, many that will cost you money every month. Even the credit bureaus will try to sell you packages. These services can vary from Identity Theft reporting to credit monitoring, at costs from $9.95 to over $30.00 per month.

Are the services worth buying? Monitoring does alert you to unusual activity on your credit report, but if you don’t like paying a monthly fee, you can use free reports to do a periodic checkup. How? Rather than order all 3 reports at once, order a free report from a different agency each 4 months. This will help you to monitor any unusual activity. It is important that you look for anything on your credit which is not 100% correct- as well as possible identity theft.

After you place an order at Annualcreditreport.com, the credit bureau you specified will mail you the report, or you may be able to download it. Be certain to check it carefully- a 2004 study by U.S. Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups found 25% of reports contained serious errors. I know that in my own personal credit reports I have found numerous errors over the years.

You want to make certain your report is clean and stays clean so that if you want to obtain a mortgage or other loan you aren’t paying a higher interest rate because of erroneous items on your report. If you find ANYTHING incorrect, be certain to document it in a letter, send any supporting documentation and send a copy of the report with the error highlighted to the agency, requesting it be removed immediately. Keep a copy of everything you send in a file, just in case it doesn’t get handled or it reappears in future reports.

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