Get your free annual credit report

Posted by Ken

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One of the best ways to defend yourself against identity theft is to get and review a copy of your credit report. In fact, it’s recommended you check on it annually. This simple method of protection can help you spot abnormalities that could appear with your credit, which can be an indication that someone may be charging goods and services at your expense.

People who don’t take this seriously and have had their identities stolen often face a bad credit rating that’s hard to restore and a lengthy battle ahead of them. They’re left thinking, “If only I had known sooner, I could have stopped it before it got out of hand.”

Now, you can get a credit report for free with AnnualCreditReport.

So under the United States Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) will provide consumers a free credit report once every 12 months upon request. You can visit AnnualCreditReport.com to see if your state is eligible. The US has been broken down into regions, with each region rolling out the offer during 2005. Currently, about half the US offers the service.

You can ask for all three reports at once, or space them out over a year’s time. Makes no difference. Although I haven’t checked each of the credit institutions personally, I do know from experience that Experian offers a credit monitoring service. So, if something looks out of whack with my purchasing habits, like a spike in purchasing, or multiple purchases within a short period of time, I will be alerted to that, thus enabling me to act upon it sooner.

Take control of your credit. Even if the service isn’t offered in your state yet, you can still obtain a copy of your credit report for a low fee. So don’t wait!

Identity Theft