When did you last check your credit report?

It’s a question I frequently ask audiences, yet invariably only a few hands go up. If I ask when they last checked the credit report for their teen, no hands go up. Why aren’t people checking? The answer appears to be twofold:

1. It hasn’t become a habit. We lead busy lives and checking credit reports hasn’t yet become part of our things-to-do lists.

2. People don’t know how to get a credit report, and don’t trust that it’s really free.

Yet you have the right under recent amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act to one free credit disclosure in a twelve-month period from each of the three national credit reporting companies—TransUnion (800-680-7289), Experian (888- 397-3742), and Equifax (800-525-6285).

You can compare your credit reports from all three companies once a year; that lets you compare all three to see if there are inconsistencies. Or, you can get a report from each company separately spaced over the year—say Feb 1^st from TransUnion, June 1^st from Experian, and October 1^st from Equifax—so you keep up-to-date and can act more immediately if there’s a problem.

The easiest way to get these reports is through AnnualCreditReport.com, a service created by these three credit institutions specifically to help consumers get free annual reports. You can also pay for credit monitoring services from each credit reporting company. Decide for yourself if you want to pay for more proactive protection or stick with the free services.

How to get a free credit report

First off: make a note in your calendar to check your credit and that of any minors over 13 in your care. There are three ways to request all three reports at once from AnnualCreditReport.com:

• Go to the Web site. Through this highly secure site, you can instantly see and print your credit report.

• Call toll-free: (877) 322-8228. You’ll go through a simple verification process over the phone after which they’ll mail the reports to you.

• Request by mail. Fill out the request form (not available in every state) and mail it to the Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. (Get more details.)

Note: Remember that after you request your report, you will have to wait a year to get it free of charge again. (Of course you can pay for a copy of your credit report at any time.)

What to do with your credit report

When you get each credit report, review all the entries to see if there are credit cards, loans, or other transactions on your account that you were not aware of. If you have been a victim of credit card fraud, follow the steps outlined by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). (Get more details.)

• Contact the fraud departments of the credit reporting company to place a fraud alert on your credit report.

• Close the accounts that you believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.

• File your complaint with the FTC.

• File a report with the local police

Protecting your credit from fraud

Ironically, in spite of repeated measures brought before Congress, no national legislation has been enacted to better protect consumers from identity theft. Currently, 18 states allow you to place an “extended fraud alert,” the term for protection that stays on your account for seven years. An additional seven states allow you to protect yourself from ID theft or credit fraud AFTER you can prove you’ve already been a victim. (For proof you’ll need an identity theft report that includes a copy of a credit fraud report filed with local, state, or federal law enforcement.)

You can help change this by contacting your state and national elected officials to demand three things:

• The right to place a freeze on your credit history before you’re a victim to prevent thieves from opening new accounts in your name.

• The right to know if your private information has been stolen or exposed; right now, businesses in most states are not required to inform citizens when this happens.

• Stronger security to protect your personal information and more help for victims.

To learn more Learn more about Internet fraud and protecting personal information, read Chapter 14 (“Get Savvy About Financial Scams and Fraud”) in Look Both Ways: Help protect your family on the Internet. Or you can visit the U.S. government’s check out the official anti-fraud site of the U.S. government at OnGuardOnline.gov and http://www.cardratings.com/freecreditreports.html for great information on protecting your credit and understanding credit reports.

Linda

14 January 2007