If you want your free credit report without getting scammed, here’s how
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.
By DEREK HINTON
The Trucker News Services
7/8/2008
If the American Express credit card company is calling you up and requesting you leave home without it and you have paid your bills, your credit report may need looking into.
For whatever reason, many drivers have been requesting their credit report from DOTJobHistory recently and that is not a service we offer.
However, there is an easy way to get your credit report and I would recommend you do so.
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 includes information on where you live, how you pay your bills and whether you’ve been sued, arrested or filed for bankruptcy.
Nationwide consumer reporting companies sell the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers and other businesses that use it to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment or renting a home.
Following is information from the Federal Trade Commission on how to get your report and what to watch for.
How do I order my free report?
A: The three nationwide consumer reporting companies have set up a central Web site, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address through which you can order your free annual report.
To order, visit www.annualcreditreport.com, call (877) 322-8228 or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. The form can be found and printed from ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit.
Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually.
They are providing free annual credit reports only through the above information.
You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time.
A warning about “imposter” Web sites
The only Web site authorized to fill orders for the free annual credit report you are entitled to under law is www.annualcreditreport.com.
Other Web sites that claim to offer “free credit reports,” “free credit scores” or “free credit monitoring” are not part of the legally mandated free annual credit report program.
In some cases, the free product comes with strings attached.
For example, some sites sign you up for a supposedly free service that converts to one you have to pay for after a trial period.
If you don’t cancel during the trial period, you may be unwittingly agreeing to let the company start charging fees to your credit card.
Some “imposter” sites use terms like “free report” in their names, others have URLs that purposely misspell annualcreditreport.com in the hope that you will mistype the name of the official site. Some of these “imposter” sites direct you to other sites that try to sell you something or collect your personal information.
The site www.annualcreditreport.com and the nationwide consumer reporting companies will not send you an e-mail asking for your personal information.
If you get an e-mail, see a pop-up ad or get a phone call from someone claiming to be from annualcreditreport.com or any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies, do not reply or click on any link in the message.
It’s probably a scam. Forward any such e-mail to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.