Are you looking to make your financial life easier?
I just came across a tip you might have heard but forgotten. Review your credit reports to spot errors – for free.
There are a lot of errors, by the way. A Federal Trade Commission’s study showed 25% of credit reports had errors and 80% of disputed claims produced some kind of modification. Since it is free, it’s worth it. Check your credit report at least once a year.
Guess what? I just got mine and it only took me 5 minutes from start to download. Most of that time was spent answering questions to verify my identity such as the streets I’d lived on and dates of financial accounts I’d opened.
The credit bureaus have to give you your credit information.
The Federal Trade Commission requires them to provide information to individuals at least once annually for no charge. You won’t obtain your credit score this way but you’ll at least get your credit information.
Here’s how:
Go to Annualcreditreport.com, verify your identity by answering the questions and either order reports from all 3 agencies at once, or stagger them throughout the year. If you plan on making a large purchase such as a car or obtaining a mortgage, order them all at once. Also, frankly, if you are a procrastinator and just want to knock this out and be done, do it.
Otherwise, you might want to order one report now, another in the spring and the final one in the fall. That’s what I did. This way you are on top of your credit reporting throughout the year.
By the way, this is the legit site – watch out for copycats.
No credit card required. Oh, and if you do find an error on one of your reports, dispute it right there. It’s easy.
I’d be happy to help – I’ve done it a few times myself since the name Anderson is extremely common, my husband and I end up with some interesting items on our credit reports! So let me know how it goes.
For more information check out the FTC’s site here:
https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/get-my-free-credit-report
Cheers to meeting your financial goals!
