| ''A credit report is a factual record of your credit activities. It reports all your credit accounts and outstanding loans, the balances on your credit cards and loans, and your bill paying history.'' |
IDENTITY THEFT -- Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. It is estimated that as many as 9 Million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Chances are pretty high that you or someone you know, have experienced some sort of identity theft. Identity theft is a very serious problem and unfortunately many consumers only learn that their identity has been stolen after some damage has been done. This can cost the consumer hundreds of dollars and endless hours of trying to repair the damage that some stranger has done to your credit record. Consumers victimized by identity theft can be denied for all types of credit, may even lose out on job opportunities or in rare cases can be arrested for crimes they did not commit. On December 4th, 2003, Congress passed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 (also known as the FACT Act or FACTA) as an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (also known as FCRA). The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies (also known as credit bureaus) -- Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion -- to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. AnnualCreditReport.com is the centralized service for consumers to request free annual credit reports from the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies and is the only authorized website to fill orders for the free annual credit report you are entitled to under the law. AnnualCreditReport.com was created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and these companies have set up this one central website, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address through which you can order your free credit report. To Order Your Free Annual Credit Report: Important Note: The law allows you to order one free copy of your credit report from each of the 3 nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months. You have the option to order all 3 reports at the same time or you can order your free yearly report from each of the 3 credit reporting companies one at a time. Staggering your requests throughout the year may be a good way to keep your eye on the accuracy and completeness of the information in your credit report. However, since each credit bureau gets their information from different sources and some sources do not report to all of the credit reporting agencies, the information in your credit report from one company may not reflect the same information in the reports from the other two reporting companies. This information may not be inaccurate, it just may be different.Remember, AnnualCreditReport.com is the ONLY place to order your free credit report provided to you by law. There are a lot of websites that offer 'Free Credit Reports', Free Credit Scores' and 'Free Credit Monitoring.' Some of these websites want you to sign up for a credit monitoring service and some are just trying to collect your personal information. These types of websites can look like the official website but are not part of the official annual free credit report program. AnnualCreditReport.com will never send you any email solicitations or call you to ask for your personal information. If you receive any deceptive spam email claiming to be from AnnualCreditReport.com, forward the email to spam@ucs.gov. |
