Credit Reports
When it comes to New Year’s Resolutions, I’ll decide on something self improving (last year’s was to not snooze the alarm clock) and still find myself unable to keep up by Jan 5th.  This year, instead of resolutions, I have made a plan of action that I know is feasible.

I keep hearing on the news that 2009 is the year credit will dry up. Even with the TARP funds, banks are more conservative than ever before. They are on a path to reduce the amount of credit offered to consumers. It will be harder to get home and auto loans or even increased spending limits on credit cards. I wouldn’t be surprised if consumers find their extended credit on cards is reduced.

I think one of the best forms of protection against this current credit crisis is knowing exactly what is in my credit reports. Under the FACT ACT amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, everyone is allowed a free credit report once every twelve months from each of the three credit bureaus.

The credit agencies have set up www.annualcreditreport.com as the site to get free reports each year. I know that many people have heard of another website with the word “free” in the domain, beware that this other website is not the one you want. It tries to sign you up for a 30 day trial of credit monitoring service in order to get a free report.

Stick with www.annualcreditreport.com (or call 1-877-FACT-ACT) because it has no strings attached and will never ask you for payment information. At the time of request, consumers can choose to obtain a report from one, two, or three agencies. At first it may seem like a good idea to get all three reports at once for comparison purposes. The problem with getting all three today is that 12 months have to go by before any of these credit reports can be examined without a fee again.

For my New Year’s Plan, I have decided to get one of the three reports every four months. I’ll have reminder posts if you would like to follow along with me in ordering your reports.

My proposed schedule:

  • January 2009 – Equifax
  • May 2009 – TransUnion
  • September 2009 – Experian

I feel that this way I’ll always have an updated report to arm myself in case the credit card companies make any changes to my available credit without notifying me.

FYI – Just the credit reports are free. Getting an actual credit score will usual cost $ unless you sign up for a free trial of a service like credit monitoring. More about credit scores later.

Related posts:

  1. Credit Report Update
  2. Thinking of Opening Another Store Charge Card?
  3. De-Mystifing FICO scores