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August 31, 2006
Three (not just one) free credit reports per year
A while ago, I posted this link to get your credit report for free each year. Why bother? Well, it might help you avoid a nasty surprise when you go to apply for a home mortgage or car loan or help you catch identity theft. One in four reports have errors serious enough to result in the denial of credit, according to these guys who are keep track of even nerdier stuff than me. (Is nerdier a word? I guess not).
So it turns out you can actually get three free credit report per year, not just one, because three credit agencies keep track of your credit (or mistrack your credit, as it were): Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion and you're entitled to one free credit report from each of them. So you can get a report from Equifax this month, then Experian in four more months, then TransUnion four months after that and in a year, start over with Equifax.
I found one error in my Equifax report - a Discover card account that was listed as being closed by Discover, not by me. I don't know how much that dings my credit score, but it was pretty easy to fix the problem. I just filled out the online form and in about a week it was changed.
Posted by brian at August 31, 2006 07:30 PM