| Free Tips from Credit Report Advisors |
| By Credit Federal |
Published
02/8/2009
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Credit Report
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Top Free Tips from Credit Report Advisors
Review these easy yet vital tips from credit report advisors to protect your privacy, monitor for ID theft and how mistakes can get on your credit report.
PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY
To reduce the possibility of identity theft, protect your personal information.
- Don't carry your Social Security number in your purse or wallet. Provide it to others only when absolutely necessary.
- Shred or burn any documents that contain your Social Security number or financial information if you no longer need them. Don't just toss them in the trash. Dumpster diving is one of the easiest ways to steal someone's identity.
- Keep all your payment tools (credit cards, debit cards, checks and other account information) in a safe place. Also secure other documents; such as bank and credit card statements, which contain account numbers or personal info such as date-of-birth and Social Security number.
- To correct an error on your credit report, work directly with the credit reporting agencies and your creditor. Don't send your correction to Fair Isaac or to other third parties.
- Don't send your Social Security information in emails. Learn more about scoring at myfico.com/crediteducation
How to get an annual free credit report with no credit card
MONITOR FOR IDENTITY THEFT
An important reason to regularly check your credit report is for early detection of identity theft.
Identity theft is when someone uses your personal information; such as your name, Social Security number, credit card number or other identifying information, without your permission to make purchases, open accounts, take-out loans, buy cars and even get new jobs.
By regularly checking your credit report from each of the credit reporting agencies, you can make sure they are accurate and don't include activities you haven't authorized. If you suspect that your personal information has been hijacked and misappropriated to commit fraud or theft, take action immediately, and keep a record of your conversations and correspondence.
These four basic actions are appropriate in almost every case:
- Call the toll-free fraud number at any one of the three major credit reporting agencies to place a fraud alert on your credit report. You only need to contact one of the credit reporting agencies to have the alert placed on all three. Once you place the alert, you are entitled to order one free copy of your credit report from each of three credit reporting agencies.
- Contact the lender and close any accounts that have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.
- File a report with your local police or the police in the community where the identity theft took place.
- File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Find more information at ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft
HOW CAN MISTAKES GET ON MY CREDIT REPORT?
If your credit report contains errors, it is often because the report is incomplete, or contains information about someone else. This typically happens because:
- You applied for credit under different names.
- Someone made a clerical error in reading or entering name or address information from a hand-written application.
- You gave an inaccurate Social Security number, or the number was misread by the lender.
- Loan or credit card information was inadvertently applied to the wrong account.
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