Credit Report for Free!

Credit Report for free!  www.freecreditreport.com and other similar companies spend millions making you terrified about your credit report, creditors and collectors love to mention credit scores while collecting debt and somewhere deep down you probably wonder what your credit report looks like.  I have good new for you; Congress permits you to get Credit Report for free!

Although not directly related to the FDCPA, I wanted to take a minute to talk about getting Credit Report for free.  Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) you are entitled to a Credit Report for Free once every 12 months.  Under FACTA, Congress set up a website, www.annualcreditreport.com for you to enforce your rights to a yearly credit report for free.  Be wary of anyone that tries to charge you for this or of any company that promises to “monitor” your credit report.  Just like you can get Credit Reports for Free – this “monitoring service” some companies try to up sell you is also free.  What these companies do is actually put a special hold on your credit that makes applying for loans impossible without a telephone call from you giving them authority.  While you might think this would be worth paying for – FACTA requires the credit bureaus, in addition to giving you your credit report for free, to put a hold on extending credit under your name if you ask them – talk about preventing Identity Theft for free….

There are many bogus websites out there that trick you into giving them your credit card information and offering the “credit report for free” only if you subscribe to their monthly service which they argue can be cancelled at any time after you receive the reports.  Speaking for myself, whenever I am offered services which will continue until cancelled, I usually incur a couple months charges before I’m reminded that I didn’t cancel the service.  www.annualcreditreport.com has been deemed the official website to obtain your credit report for free.  Be very leery of any other site; even if they say the report is “free”.

If you’re reading this blog, most likely you are being harassed by collection agencies.  Save your money to pay off your debt; don’t spend it on a sham website offering you for a cost what Federal Law provides for free.

-Jeffrey Hyslip

Tags: Credit Report

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