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Free Credit Reports - How to Maintain Your Credit
Profile
Maintaining your Credit Profile
Every consumer should be maintaining their credit profiles to
ensure the highest scores possible. To do so, you must first
order your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus:
Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian. The federal Fair Credit
Reporting Act (FCRA) entitles you to a copy of your credit Report
for free, provided you meet the following criteria:
? You have been denied credit because of information in your
credit report within the last 60 days.
? You are currently unemployed and are seeking employment.
? You receive public assistance.
? You believe that your credit file contains errors due to
fraud or identity theft.
Additionally, you also may be able to get your credit report
and credit score from other business or companies. For example,
if you live in California and are shopping for a home loan, the
lender must provide you with your credit score by law. Several
other states require that credit scores be disclosed to
consumers.
It's possible to receive a free copy of your credit reports
annually if you live in Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, New
Jersey, Vermont and Maryland. Recently Congress passed a law
which affords each of us the right to a free credit report
annually. Below is a listing of the start dates for this
particular program:
Consumers in the Western states - Alaska, Arizona, California,
Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon,
Utah, Washington, and Wyoming - can order their free reports
beginning December 1, 2004.
Consumers in the Midwestern states - Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota,
Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin - can order their free reports
beginning March 1, 2005.
Consumers in the Southern states - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas - can order their free reports
beginning June 1, 2005.
Consumers in the Eastern states - Connecticut, Delaware,
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New
York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont,
Virginia, and West Virginia - the District of Columbia, Puerto
Rico, and all U.S. territories can order their free reports
beginning September 1, 2005.
To take advantage of the free annual credit report, please
visit: www.annualcreditreport.com.
Why is it important to "maintain our credit profile"? You have
to have good credit, or at least decent credit, for a lender to
consider you as a worthy credit risk. With our credit score being
used in everything from insurance to interest rates on loans, we
need to ensure that we manage our credit properly.
There is also the an epedimic going on called Identity Theft.
The FBI released a study in May 2005 which stated that Identity
Theft has caused over $52.6 billion dollars in total losses for
2004. With over 4.6% of the population being effected by Identity
Theft, you can never be too careful. Identity Theft is simply an
individual assuming another identity, and often times leads to
other financial crimes such as credit card fraud, mortgage fraud,
and check fraud.
By monitoring our credit reports frequently and utilizing our
credit responsibily, we can take control of our financial futures
to ensure that our profiles are accurate.
For more information regarding your credit scores, credit
reports or debt options currently available to you, please
contact Gateway Credit Connection or visit us online at
http://www.creditmonkey.com
Michael Goff is the Co-Founder of Gateway Credit Connection,
helping empower consumers to take control of their personal and
business finances.
MORE RESOURCES:
Credit - Google News
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