Poison Girl asked:


I realize that this site is the only Government-recognized entity for free credit reports but I am slightly worried as to what can happen after I submitted so much information to them. I am sure I am not the only one this has happened to…let me detail the situation. I read an article on Yahoo! about things you could get for free and one of the things listed was the aforementioned credit report from this website.

I proceeded to the site by entering it into my browser and reading the information that came up next. I saw nothing about a credit monitoring service so I believe I am safe there but what got to me was when it was time to “verify my identity”. They asked me for the numbers of my credit cards (a couple of which I am sure do not exist) and also my loan account numbers. I typed them in only to be dumbfounded when the answer was repeatedly “we cannot verify your information”. They even locked me out and said I would have to get it by mail but that’s beside the point.

What I am concerned about is the fact that I provided a lot of personal information (I do not need a lecture about how wrong this is) and I want to be sure that they won’t use it in the future for their own gains. I declined any of their efforts to e-mail me when it’s time for my next report as I will not be using their service again. I just don’t see how that information that I provided (the loan numbers and account numbers for the credit cards) can be used if they didn’t even accept them as a way to verify my identity. I hope this has not become too muddled with words.

I have read numerous accounts of people being scammed through these very services (Experian and TransUnion) so my concern is growing with each testimony I read. Any information that is provided will be appreciated, save those efforts to make me feel like I did something of inferior intelligence to even visit the website, honestly.

Randall

ME asked:


I will pay someone really good money….secured via paypal….to put me in contact with an insider at Experian. I have had the craziest dilemma. My credit file has been mixed with someone else’s. I need to get it straightened out. My credit file has been locked because of it, I think so I can’ even get a copy of my credit file. I have called (certifiably impossible to reach someone, there is no way around the automated system without a copy of your credit report), written on numerous occasion (to the Allen, TX center….which I only live about 30 mins from…and the Irvine, CA corporate headquarters , and managed to find an experian fax machine and I faxed my request over to them. I have included my social security card, driver’s license, passport, birth certificate, lease, electric bill, telephone bill, and cable bill, and 2 denial letters! I can’t get a copy from freecreditreport.com, annualcreditreport.com, or any credit monitoring service even after faxing this documentation to them. All because of Experian. I am desperate need to buy a car and I know I have great credit. I am dumbfounded! Please someone help me!!! ALL I WANT IS A COPY OF MY CREDIT REPORT! Has anyone else had this much trouble?!

Bonnie

Melek asked:


Last time they charged me $14.95 coz I didn’t saw that you have to cancel within the 7 days trial period. That’s ok with me. So I cancelled it, and they told that I’m not gonna be charged anymore. I recieved a confirmation email that I canelled it blah2x. So now, I got another email from them, and they said,

“This email alert is to notify you that a key change has been posted to one of your three national Credit Reports. To view your complete alert report, please sign into https://www.freecreditreport.com/Login.aspx

We monitor your Experian®, Equifax®, and TransUnion® Credit Reports daily and alert you if key changes are detected, including potential signs of Identity Theft. Key changes include:
New accounts
Inquiries
Potentially negative information
Public records
Address changes
We’re glad you made the right decision by choosing FreeCreditReport.com® – the trusted leader in online credit monitoring, reports and scores. Should you have any questions concerning your membership, please contact Customer Care at 1-866-274-5002. For your convenience, we are open Monday-Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Pacific Time).

Sincerely,

Customer Care
FreeCreditReport.com”

DO I HAVE TO CHECK IT? OR SHOULD I JUST LEAVE IT ALONE COZ THAT’S NORMAL? I’m just tryin to make sure, coz I’m scared if log in and type my SSN and charge me again…LOL

Brandon

PlasticTrees asked:


Is it experian?

Also, do you know of a site that monitors all 3 bureau’s? (that is good, legit and cheap)
I have 1k in debt, $230 in a revolving balance I’m going to pay off.. I’m wondering also if I should get a secured card to better my score, and maybe get approved for more credit.

Randy

Cornie Herring asked:




Bankruptcy often is the last ultimate solution for many debtors who have unbearable debts. With filing a bankruptcy, you will get rid of your debts instantly and relief you from the harassing call of your creditors.

Although bankruptcy has many undesirable consequences such as your bad credit record will remain on your credit report for 7-10 years, but with a little work, you can improve your credit even before these negative records expire. Here are five easy steps you can take to rebuild your credit.

Step 1: Get to know your current credit status

The first step to rebuilding your credit is to look at exactly where you stand. Order all your three credit reports from those three national credit bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. You can order these reports online, it easy and secure.

Print each report and review it closely. Try to understand the information listed in your credit reports and highlight any negative records or inaccuracies that are damaging your credit score.

Step 2: Check the expiration dates

By law, your bad credit record will remain in your credit report for 7 to 10 years, but the exact expiry date might be different among these 3 reports. Your bad record will still remain at your credit report although you have pay off your old debts and discharge from bankruptcy.

Look up the exact date of each of bad records including judgments, liens, charge-offs, late payments, bankruptcy filings, and collection records. You will likely see a major improvement in your credit score when these records expire.

Step 3: Request For Correct On Any Inaccurate Records

If you find inaccurate records, fraudulent accounts, or records that should have expired on you credit reports, you have the right to send a separate dispute letter to each of the credit bureaus to correct your Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion records. The bureaus will initial a 30 days investigation to see whether your requests are valid and if so, they will correct the inaccuracy in your credit report.

Just one note, don’t try to dispute any of the positive information listed in your credit reports and it is a waste of time to attempt to dispute these records. Disputing positive information may actually harm your credit scores.

Step 4: Start to create good credits

Since there is no way to remove your bad record from your credit report, the best way to improve your credit score is to add good credits and building up your credit from there. You can easy do this by open up a new credit card from banks like Orchard Bank (Orchard bank has credit card plan designed specially to help people rebuild their credit after bankruptcy).

Use this new credit card responsibly and make the monthly payment timely; with this you are building new history of good credit behavior on your credit report. Over time, you may want to open additional credit card accounts or obtain a loan to boost your credit score even higher.

Step 5: Monitor your progress

Subscribe to a credit card monitoring service or get a credit card monitoring software and use it to track your credit score progress closely. Your credit score should improve steadily as you continue to use credit responsibly and add new positive information to your credit reports.

Summary

Bankruptcy does not need to chain you to bad credit for the next seven to ten years, but you have to be proactive in order to recover and rebuild your credit.

Leo

ILUVTOFU asked:


All three?
[Equifax, Experian, TransUnion]
I want to know my FICO score, but want to know if every credit bureau has their very own FICO score.

And does MyFico offer monitoring for all 3 bureaus? [for individual credit scores]

Lee

Bart Newman asked:




Importance of Credit Report

Every single American citizen are entitled to acquiring a copy of their free annual credit report, thus “how can I order all three of my credit reports” is one of the commonly asked questions that are involved in credit monitoring. Thus, you need to ensure that you order a copy for yourself since it can serve you multiple purposes. Simply put, your report holds vital information about your credit status and rating.

Therefore, this is where you and your future creditor can obtain all the useful financial information, such as past and existing loans, credit card history, debt information, mortgages, and the like. This is one reason why your credit company seeks for your report upon filing for loan since it reflects your payment history, such that they can determine whether you are a risk to the company, should they decide to approve you for a loan.

How can I order all three of my credit reports?

Getting your report should definitely start with asking yourself: “How can I order all three of my credit reports?”

There are several methods of contacting the three major credit agencies, which are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, so you can get your free copy. The most basic step you can do to ask for a copy of your free report is to check out the website for Annual Credit Report and file your request. You will be provided a form that you must fill up with some basic details that the service needs to identify your copy. Then, you must decide which specific report from what agency you’d like to get first. You do have a choice whether to order all of the credit report from all three agencies at the same time, or not.

You must also complete different authentication process for each report from the respective credit agencies. Make sure you have prepared vital documents such as loan accounts or credit information handy, since it will be used by the credit report agency to verify your identity.

You can also try different means of contacting any of the three agencies, such as calling them through their landline numbers, checking out their individual websites, or send them a letter of request via their respective mailing addresses. For this sending a request over the phone though, some agency like Equifax require that a written request be made as follow up, wherein you will be asked to suffice some other details such as address, date of birth, name, SSN, and driver’s license, among others.

If your request to order all three reports has been completed, it will instantly appear online. Then, you can print out your own copy of the report and review over the information contained in it to identify possible errors and make credit repair. If no reports for correction are made, the information contained in your report will be considered valid and final.

Your question, “How can I order all three of my credit reports?” is fairly easy to answer once you know the steps involved.

Bill

L. Sampson asked:




Knowing what is on your credit report can help to keep your personal information safe, give you a chance to correct inaccuracies, and save you money on interest rates when you apply for a home loan. With the wide availability of free or low cost credit reports online, there is no reason to spend a lot of money to find out how credit worthy you really are.

Obtain a free credit report when you sign up for special services

If you are interested in signing up for credit monitoring or similar credit check services, take advantage of a company that offers a free credit report when you sign up for their program. If you are interested in a credit monitoring or counseling program, look for one that offers a free credit report instead of paying for this information.

Go straight to the source

According to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, everyone is entitled to receive a free copy of their credit report from each of the three nationwide credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, once every 12 months. You can individually request a copy from each bureau or you can look for online companies that offer a free centralized request form that lets you fill out one form and receive your credit report from all three agencies.

Save money later by not being too thrifty now

While free online credit sites abound on the internet, it isn’t always as free as it sounds. Always thoroughly research any company you are about to request a free credit report from. Some are nothing more than fronts for identity theft scams. Ironically a consumer thinks they are getting a credit report to safeguard their credit, when in truth they are giving away valuable information to identity thieves. While it might seem wonderful to get a credit report for nothing, it won’t seem so wonderful if you have to go through the headache of cleaning up your credit report or if you aren’t able to secure a loan because of fraudulent information on your report.

Dale

C o n f u c i a n asked:


….Or does the score vary on which company retrieves the score? For example, on 11/10 I found out my 3 scores through a Transunion service. Experian score was 668.

Then on 12/10 I signed up for a credit monitoring service (free trial) with Bank of America and my Experian score dropped to 645.

Then today I signed up for credit score analyzer with Discover for $8 a month. I am going to stick with this service. They only use Experian but they are the most difficult. And my score today was 659.

Is this type of fluctuation normal? Look at how my score dropped with Transunion from 713 on 11/10 to 672 on 12/10…seems odd.

11/10: http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m254/nathan_211/Credit/creditscoresnov102009.png

12/10: http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m254/nathan_211/Credit/663avgcreditscoreswithBAC.png

I did just get a foreclosed home and was low on cash so I opened a Home Depot store card in November with a $5,000 limit and I used up over 50% of my limit ($2800/$5000). This was urgent so I had to do it!! I will be making a $2,000 payment next month…I suppose this could have brought my score from 713 to 672 but that seems like a big drop in a couple weeks!

Tamara

thatblissguy asked:


I know that the calculations used by lenders for a mortgage differ from Fair Isaac (FICO). I have TrueCredit (by TransUnion) triple credit monitoring which gives me unlimited access to all three of my credit reports (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian) AND my FICO scores. I am preparing myself for a refinance and I want to see how I am scoring with the mortgage calculation, since I have improved my scores significantly over the past year when I got my sub-prime mortgage. My one year prepay penalty is coming up in late December and I want to be fully prepared before I start shopping. Also, what ABSOLUTE MINIMUM credit scores do I need, (FICO) and (Mortgage Lender), to be considered for a Prime rate (<7.5%). Thanks for your help, the people that contribute are greatly appreciated and I'm honored for your time and efforts! Keep up the good work!!!
So I just figured out recently that TransUnion's TrueCredit scoring use FACO and not a true FICO. I went to each bureau seperately and got my FICO and heres what I found, its astounding:
TU EXP EQ
FACO: 637* 596 607
FICO: 637* 660 678

*TransUnion only offers this scoring

I was going off this FACO calculation for over a year! Come to find out I have pretty good credit, and the things I have done to improve it had paid off substantially more than I thought in the past! My Mortgage score was MUCH higher than my FICO when I was applying for my first mortgage. So I now feel that my MORTGAGE SCORE should be in the 700s? Does anyone agree with that? That a middle score of 660 FICO would be at least 700 in Mortgage credit scoring?

Beth