Credit Monitoring With A Free Annual Credit Report

By Author: Article Writer Kali
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Most consumers assume you have to use a professional credit monitoring service in order to perform credit monitoring. This is actually untrue. Credit monitoring can be done by the consumer without the need of a professional service. One of those ways is by monitoring your credit reports. Every consumer is entitled by federal law a free copy of each credit report provided by the credit reporting agencies once a year.

There are three credit reporting agencies: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. These credit reporting agencies have detailed credit reports regarding a consumer's payment history, credit account amounts, credit types, length of credit history, personal information and any negative information as well. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act that was passed in 1970, there are specific laws that these three agencies must comply with.

As you perform credit monitoring on your credit reports, you can order all three credit reports at once and wait a year to obtain them again, or you can order one report from one agency and then order another four months later to span it out over the year. It is important ...
... to read over your credit report closely. Note any inaccuracies that are in your credit report including late payments on accounts you have always kept current.

As a consumer, you have the right to dispute information on your credit report and it is the duty of the credit reporting agency to verify whether or not that information is correct. If the creditor cannot provide the credit reporting agency with information regarding proof that the debt or printed information is valid, then it has to be removed in accordance with federal law.

If you plan to perform credit monitoring on your own, then you will need to obtain your free annual copies of your credit reports. In order to do that you can visit the government website or request it in writing from: Annual Credit Reporting Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, Georgia 30348-5281. If you are looking to request your free annual credit report, you will need your full name, social security, date of birth and be able to answer security verification questions used from your credit report itself.