Greene County, Indiana · Friday, November 20, 2009
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YOUR FREE CREDIT REPORTS
Posted Friday, October 24, 2008, at 3:44 PM
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If you want to look at your credit report from the three primary reporting agencies, you can now do so by visiting this website: www.AnnualCreditReport.com

You will need to follow the instructions carefully, making sure that you don't click, check mark, or otherwise accept anything for a fee unless you want to purchase it though. For example, the reporting agencies will NOT give you your actual credit score for free. They consider that a proprietary calculation that the agency will charge for showing to you.

They will also try to sell other services, ranging from credit alerts to credit monitoring to identity theft protection, so you will need to just click the 'No, thanks' button, if you only want your free credit reports.

You may do this on an annual basis, and it's a good idea. When you print out your report, check for errors. If you find an error, you'll need to follow the instructions to fix the error with the reporting agency. Those instructions will print along with your credit information.


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♫ F-R-E-E, that spells hidden costs ♫

http://consumerist.com/search/freecredit...

A month or so ago, I used creditkarma.com -- (it was free at the time, and it still may be) they use their own calculations to estimate your credit score, and for me it was rather close, within 15 points I think, of what Equifax tells me.

I don't know for a fact, but I've also heard rumors that depending which of the "big three" pull your score, they can differ greatly.

-- Posted by per moenia urbis on Fri, Oct 24, 2008, at 11:06 PM

Yes, there are many websites out there that are supposedly free, but in the fine print, they require that you sign up for paid services. The website I provided, does indeed give you your credit reports free; however, as I warned, they do take the opportunity to try to sell you additonal stuff along the way.

Yes, the big three have different proprietary scoring systems, so each will have a different number. In fact, some companies have different scoring methods, depending on which a financial institution uses.

Bottom line, if there are mistakes on the report, they should be corrected or they will continue to be incorrect. You can't do anything about how the company 'scores' you unless the info is wrong.

-- Posted by chriswathen on Sat, Oct 25, 2008, at 4:46 PM


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