How To Check Your Credit Score For Free

A credit report contains the vital information that creditors use to assess your creditworthiness. It is akin to a life support machine for feeble hospital patients. Just slight alterations of a credit report can destroy your financial life support, which in this case is your credit score. Credit reports detail where you live, how you compensate creditors for bills and loans, and whether you have incurred a major financial hit, such as filing for bankruptcy and having a lawsuit filed against you. ( How To Check Your Credit Score For Free )

Even potential employers review your credit report to determine your credentials for an open position.

The increasing importance of credit reports means you have to stay on top of your credit score. Rapidly changing laws that applied to obtaining credit reports 10 years probably have little, if any relevance in 2017.

Let’s review how to check your free credit score in 2017

• Know Your Rights

To learn how to obtain your free credit report, you first have to understand your rights under credit reporting law. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the three major credit reporting companies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) to provide consumers with a free credit report promptly upon request. Congress passed the FCRA to protect consumers against unscrupulous creditors that charge ridiculously high-interest rates on loans and credit cards. Under the FCRA, you can request one credit report from each credit reporting company one time every 12 months. The FCRA mandates that TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax maintain accurate and private records of consumer credit information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces FCRA compliance. However, it is up to consumers to review credit reports thoroughly to discover inaccuracies and discrepancies.

How to Order Your Free Credit Report

Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union have created a central website where you request a credit report that includes your credit score. The three major credit reporting agencies also operate toll-free numbers to discuss free credit reports with consumers directly. However, you can only purchase a credit report directly from the three credit reporting companies. Each company provides your free annual credit report through the website www.annualcreditrepor.com. You can order your credit report through annualcreitreport.com by making a request online, by calling 1-877-322-8228, or by completing the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mailing it to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service

• P.O. Box 10581
• Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

Here’s how you contact the three major credit reporting companies to buy your credit report:

Equifax

• 800-685-111
• equifax.com

Experian

• 888-397-3742
• experian.com

TransUnion

• 800-916-8800
• transunion.com

How To Check Your Credit Score For Free

The Information You Need to Acquire Your Free Credit Score

Each of the three primary credit reporting companies might require different information for you to complete the free credit report request process. The reason for this is each company receives credit information from a few different sources. Nonetheless, if you want to obtain a free credit score in 2017, you need to submit your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth to each of the big three credit reporting companies. Consumers that have moved within the last two years also must supply their previous address. To ensure privacy and security of your credit reports, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian also ask you questions that only you know the answers to, such as the name of your first-grade teacher or your mother’s maiden name

How Long Do You Wait To Review Your Credit Score?

If you request your free credit report online via annualcreditreport.com, you should receive instant access. Consumers that order their free credit reports by phone can expect to wait up to 15 days. The same amount of time elapses for consumers that mail the Annual Credit Report Request Form. Regardless o how you request your annual free credit report, one or more of the three major credit reporting companies might request more information to verify your identity. If this happens, you can expect to wait longer than 15 days to review your credit score in 2017.

Inaccurate and Incomplete Credit Information

The FCRA decrees that credit reporting companies are legally responsible for fixing inaccurate or incomplete information on consumer credit reports. Yet, the responsibility for discovering inaccurate and incomplete information falls on you, the consumer. If a thorough investigation conducted by one or more of the major credit reporting companies does not resolve a dispute, you can request that the company place a statement of the dispute within your credit report for anyone or any organization that requests a record of your credit history.

Obtaining and reviewing your credit report represents one of the most important responsibilities you have for managing your finances. You cannot afford to have a prospective employer turn you down because of the inaccurate information that produces your credit score. Most creditors and employers look at your credit score; it is your job to ensure the information that generates your credit score is complete and accurate. This is just a friendly tip; if you are having a bad credit, and you are in need of a loan, please click here https://aaacreditguide.com/best-short-term-loans-for-bad-credit/.

That’s all about How To Check Your Credit Score For Free.

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