Just pulled one of my free credit reports at www.annualcreditreport.com
I know that ideally I should run one every 4 months (rotating the 3 credit reporting companies each time I pull the report), but honestly I'm averaging one every 6 months. I must really try to do better. It's such an easy thing to do; no excuse to not stay on top of that.
I've already made notes on my calendar 4 months and 8 months from now.
The report's clean --- No sign of identity theft --- No companies reviewing my account that don't have a right to (tho' really, why does Discover have to review it EVERY SINGLE month???) --- Whew!
I've checked my SCORE a few times in the past and paid for it, but DH told me that was ridiculous, and he was right. I was just doing it out of a sense of competiveness [as in "my score is higher than xx.x% of Americans, nanananananah."] --- silly, huh?
I no longer care what my score is ... well, I do care a little bit still (am I pathetically competitive or what?), but I'm not going to allow myself to get suckered in to paying for it. All that really should matter to me is staying on top of identity theft.
Free Credit Report
January 8th, 2008 at 03:35 am
January 8th, 2008 at 04:21 pm 1199809278
Hey, does anyone know what the catch is for freecreditreport.com? (Oops, I see you used annualcreditreport.com - just how many of these things are there?!! Do they sell your name to mailing lists or something? Do they just contact the credit agencies to get your annual free report under the law that was just legislated a while ago?
January 8th, 2008 at 05:02 pm 1199811763
That's the web site I made note of and have always used.
I don't recall seeing advertisements for it. They offer you add-on, pay options (such as seeing your credit score) but they don't really push it.
On the other hand, I see ads for www.freecreditreport.com EVERYWHERE! That makes me suspicious of it, thinking it's more commercialized. My suspicion is that site probably tries to sell you on things more (they have to pay for those ads somehow, don't they?), but I can't say for sure as I've never used it.
January 8th, 2008 at 05:38 pm 1199813935
January 8th, 2008 at 07:45 pm 1199821513
January 8th, 2008 at 09:09 pm 1199826553
One other thing--the ratings vary from one company to the next. Experian told me my score was 730, but when we applied for a loan at WAMU, they said I was under 700, so they left me off the loan (hubby's score was higher). The system is confusing to say the least. I try not to worry too much about the number. We're accumulating savings and trying to structure our lives so that we can avoid the need for credit.
January 9th, 2008 at 02:14 am 1199844851
Thanks for all the info. That darn freecreditreport.com succeeded in inserting its name into my head by mimicking the real one just like spam and phishing, and I had actually never even heard of the real one.
January 9th, 2008 at 04:37 am 1199853422
January 9th, 2008 at 04:55 pm 1199897737
And oh yeah, ANNUALcreditreport is the right one. I learned that one the hard way a while back.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:12 pm 1208211145
http://www.credittrained.com
Learn the hidden secrets of how the credit companies figure out your credit score. Learn how you can take improper information off your credit information. How you can improve your credit score. Choose to take charge of your life and your credit situation.