Did you get your FREE Credit Report Yet?

[moneyfolk]

By law, American consumers are entitled to one FREE credit report per year from each of the 3 National Consumer Credit Reporting Bureaus:

FTC Free Credit Reports From AnnualCreditReport.com

Did you get yours?

[cercis]

Yes I did. And I found that my name is listed wrong. My bday is listed wrong. And there is a collections (marked paid) that I never knew about. It's a med collection and I suspect that my insurance must have picked it up, but they turned me as being in collections (which is so bogus because no one EVER contacted me about the debt).

I'm trying to decide if I want to work on correcting it or not. I suspect that the collections I'm stuck with, but it's from 2001, so it'll drop off in a couple of years. It's the only negative on my report.

[baselle]

I live in Washington State, so I've had it for 9 months. My credit is basically good so my tactic was to space out the three reports instead of getting them all at once. My name was all right, but my employment was completely wrong (now how could I be working for UWisc - Madison from Seattle?) and an old tax lien that should have dropped off, but didn't.

I had good luck with correcting my info online and I highly recommend it.

[cercis]

Yeah, I only pulled one of the three. In 4 months I'll pull the another one. And then 4months later, I'll pull the last one.

It explains a lot of the funky offers I get. They even had one name as my LastName FI Lastname. We got mail for that a lot and I could never figure it out. Now I know. Jerks, they clearly sell your name to junk mailers.

[baselle]

Originally Posted by cercis

Yeah, I only pulled one of the three. In 4 months I'll pull the another one. And then 4months later, I'll pull the last one.

It explains a lot of the funky offers I get. They even had one name as my LastName FI Lastname. We got mail for that a lot and I could never figure it out. Now I know. Jerks, they clearly sell your name to junk mailers.

Or worse, a junk mailer gave the credit bureau the info it got. Apparently all three bureaus just shove data - any old crappy stuff - into your name no matter where they get it from.

[moneyfolk]

Cercis - I'm curious about why you would not try to correct the errors.

I also noticed that my name and address is incorrect on some of the junk mail that I get.

About 4 years ago when I was trying to file for unemployment after being laid off I discovered that I supposedly worked for a place that I had never heard off.

I called the police filed a report and then also filed an extended alert with the credit bureaus....this lasts for 7 years. Whenever EVEN I apply for a credit card or a loan they do extra work to verify that I am who I am. Actually one time, we were turned down for credit at SEARS when we were buying a washer and dryer! That was ok though - my husband did it in his name.

[niki_the_tiger]

My SSN is relatively new (I'm a permanent resident in the U.S.) so I am considering pulling it just to see if anything at all is on it yet (I've had it for a few months). Should I wait longer?

[TBH]

Originally Posted by baselle

My name was all right, but my employment was completely wrong (now how could I be working for UWisc - Madison from Seattle?)

I had good luck with correcting my info online and I highly recommend it.

Everything looked all right on mine (only did one of the three bureaus--will use the every-four-months technique). The only thing that was wrong was my employer info. They have me down as being a writing tutor for my alma mater--and I haven't held that job for about ten years. It was my first ever job. Is there any reason I should try to get them to correct this? I don't really see why it matters.

Scary, though, seeing EVERY SINGLE CARD I've ever had listed on there. Makes me want to be pretty careful about not opening new accounts needlessly.

There was one collection agency thing that I was afraid would be on there and it wasn't. I wonder if it will be on the other two companies' reports. Does anybody have experience with how the 3 companies differ in terms of what they have on us?

[cercis]

I figure the errors are small and not worth my time to correct. The few times I've tried to correct things like that, things have gotten worse, not better. I don't feel like facing the bureacratic nightmare that happens every time I call someplace like that.

A wrong name (which is very close to my actual name) isn't a huge deal to me. No credit was applied for or taken out under that name. A wrong bday doesn't really bother me either (it's close). If they were bigger errors, then I'd fight it. The collections bothers me, but having worked for a collections agency I know it won't be taken off, especially since it is marked as "paid" - to them that means I must have acknowledged the debt, even though *I* didn't pay it.

[cercis]

Claire, I'm not sure about the employment thing. I'll tell you as a collection paralegal I used that info to garnish paychecks. If there was current employment, I sent them a garnishment form. I had about a 25% success rate with this.

So, when mine didn't have my current employer, I wasn't upset (not that I plan to be in collections, but ...)

[TBH]

Yeah, I was glad to see this. It makes me nervous when Those People who gather info on me are too well informed. It's like when I got called for jury duty on the day I was due to have a baby. It felt like proof that the government didn't have some secret centralized database with my current medical info, etc etc in it. Or at least if there is such a database, the judicial branch of my local government doesn't have access.

[TBH]

Okay, that last post revealed that I'm a little paranoid about people collecting info on me.

[cercis]

Don't worry claire, I'm the same way. I carefully control my info. I've never revealed my true bdate online (I make it a believable "mistake" just in case). I've only rarely revealed my true name online.

After working collections and seeing the way they can use your info, I'm even more careful. I found out that I could pull a credit report with a name and a birthdate. I didn't even need the SSN (it helped, but if I didn't have it, 9/10 it still pulled it up for me).

[TBH]

Unfortunately I got worried about privacy late in the game. When I got my first checking account I had my SSN printed on my checks. And I have some screen names that use my birth year, a choice which I'm regretting now.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by creditreport

All fingers are not same. I ordered my credit report at freecreditreport.com and I got the credit report with accurate data and stats. I also get the regular updates on my credit score from them.

Be aware that despite their URL, this site is NOT free.

The place to get your truly free report is from annualcreditreport.com. I would avoid any other site promising a free report because they typically require you to sign up for some costly credit-monitoring service in order to get your "free" report.

[orenwach]

You can get a free monthly credit report from Credit Sesame - creditsesame.com