Clearwater, FL — Better Business Bureau wants to make sure consumers don’t hit any unexpected bumps in the road this year, and is reminding consumers to check their credit report annually.
The importance of pulling your credit report is to ensure the information being reported is accurate, complete and up-to-date. When looking at your credit report, look for these red flags of identity theft:
- Any inquiries not initiated by you;
- Any debts reported that are not yours; or
- Contact information, such as your address, that was changed without your approval.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.
A credit report contains important information that can affect whether you can get a loan, and how much you will have to pay in order to borrow money. The information contained in a credit report is sold to and used by creditors, insurers and other businesses so they can evaluate applications for credit, insurance or renting a home.
Consumers looking to pull their free credit reports should visit annualcreditreport.com, the only authorized source for free annual credit reports under federal law. On this website, consumers can request their credit report from each of the three reporting agencies online, by phone or through mail.
BBB offers these tips for pulling your annual credit report:
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But for those with serious ongoing credit defaults, the picture is more complicated and it is probably best to omit ordering the reports, at least during the first few years following the advent of the defaults. Creditors and collectors receive periodic updates from the credit reporting agencies, which include the debtor's current obligations, new address (if any), new job, or what-have-you. These may be triggered automatically at the CRAs' end if the creditor has subscribed to services with names like "reappear", "triggers for collection" or "collection triggers" or they may just be periodic updates the creditor itself orders. In either case, consumers often find they cannot get their free credit reports immediately online because the CRA requests by mail a drivers' license copy or a utility bill or some other proof of residence. This is NOT a protection for the consumer. The CRA has pre-sold new, solid, actionable address information (when available) to one or more creditors or collectors who have requested it. Providing what the CRA wants virtually guarantees that some collector who has been quiescent will again come after the consumer. For a consumer who may be waiting for the right time to file bankruptcy or carry out some other plan, it could be devastating.